Rickelton celebrates century with heartfelt tribute to dad

When Ryan Rickelton punched the ball past the stumps at the non-striker’s end to run through for a couple to take him to his maiden Test century, there was a little fist pump as he made his way to the other end.

That was for him.

But upon completion of the runs, and then taking off his helmet to acknowledge the applause from the sparse crowd at St George’s Park and his teammates in the home dressingroom, he looked up to the heavens in appreciation.

That was for his dad, Ian Rickelton, who is far away in the United Kingdom.

“I think my dad's probably going to be the happiest person in the world,” Rickelton said after his 101 pushed the Proteas to 269/7 at stumps on the opening day of the second Test against Sri Lanka.

“He is in London now, but my dad's probably going to be the happiest person in the world because he was the one that took me to the nets when I was six.

“He was the one that threw to me and fed to me. The relief that he will have for me as well. I'm stoked for him as well, to show that his hard work also meant something.”

The seminal moment in Rickelton’s career has been a long time coming. A prodigious talent since his schoolboy days at St Stithians, through to dominating domestic cricket for the Lions and MI Cape Town in the SA20, Rickleton has always possessed the natural ability to play at the highest level.

It has always been more whether he had the mental composure to perform under pressure, and up until yesterday at South Africa’s oldest Test venue, the jury remained undecided.

Promoted to No 3 here in Gqeberha, and with Tony de Zorzi falling first ball of the second over for a duck, the spotlight was firmly on Rickleton. It may not have been now or never, but it certainly was a test of his credentials.

At 28, Rickelton would have known the chances were starting to dry up, so he tightened up his customary expansive game and played within himself. A juicy opening full toss settled the nerves, and from thereon he was desperate to make the innings count.

And he duly did with a superb century, that was almost not realised after being adjudged LBW on 98 before a successful review overturned the decision.

“I've always felt that I can play at this level. It's just more relief than anything,” Rickelton said.

“I thought I was out! I just wanted to say, Joel, how could you give that out to them? Yeah, I was just hoping for outside the line, I'm not sure if I hit it in all honesty, but I'll take maybe a scratchy spike.

“It didn't look pretty, but like I said, it's just more relief th an anything. I've been around this team for a period of time now, I've been in and I've been out in all the formats, and you know, just the opportunity to try and obviously get a bit of a stronghold in who I am as a cricketer as well, and kind of just tick that off for myself is probably the most important thing.

“I'm quite a confidence player, and that was just you know what, I can actually and I do have the ability, so like I said, massive relief.”

A major feature of Rickelton’s inning was his ability to not get suckered into employing the pull or hook shot when the Sri Lankan pacemen dug it in short.

“It was quite tricky, not in terms of it was difficult to get up and see it early and play the pull shot,” he said.

“It's just the bounce was a bit inconsistent. And with so many catches leg-side, we saw Dave (Bedingham) got one or two and he said he saw them early and got in position quite nicely.

“But it just has to stop a fraction or bounce a little bit more and it hits the other half of the bat and can go in the air.

“So I kind of just wanted to say, you know, I'd rather, I'm not going to give it away playing some average pull shots and fall into the trap there. I was thinking, I don't want to give it away.”