Devon Cricket Board - DCBYA U14s 2010 v Gloucestershire ECB CC

DCBYA U14s 2010 v Gloucestershire ECB CC

DCBYA Under 14s V Gloucestershire, Plympton CC 25th July 2010

After one days rest, after a hard week at the Taunton Festival, it was back to business for the Under 14s against Gloucestershire, at Plympton Cricket Club, who had kindly stepped in when the orignal venue was no longer available. Overnight very heavy drizzle meant the outfield and square were saturated but with the weather set to change by 11.00AM the match got the go ahead and thanks to the Plympton groundsman and his helpers got under way on time. It was a critical toss to win and we lost it!

Naturally Gloucestershire put Devon in and David Ackford got one that jagged back first ball and was bowled. Ollie Higgs chipped one to short mid wicket and Samuel Wyatt-Haines played an expansive shot and was bowled. 21-3! Alistair Chilcott and Theo Thomson started to recover the situation until Thomson played over an off stump yorker and was bowled and Peter Taylor was out LBW. 41-5! Luke Ansell and Chilcott put on 17 before Ansell was bowled. Enter Harry Choules. H and Chilcott put on an excellent partnership of 82 when with overs beginning to run out H decided to go for another or rather a big hit and was caught for his top score of the season, 34.
Together they had given Devon a chance as any score over 150 would be challenging. Billy Barriball and Chilcott tried to up the rate but with his first County fifty looming Chilcott was finding it demanding. Unfortunately he chipped the ball to short mid wicket and in the match circumstances was out for an outsanding 49. Gillam Crouch and in only his 5th knock in all matches all season, Ben Holmes tried and Devon finished on 156-9 off their 45 overs.

Even though the pitch and outfield had dried out in the by now lovely sunshine, clearly taking the pace off the ball was important. Crouch and Holmes opened but Gloucestershire's openers under no real pressure to score quickly batted sensibly and picked off the bad ball. Smith was first to go caught on the boundary by Peter Taylor off Luke Ansell when the score was on 52. Evans didn't follow until the score was on 95, run out again by Taylor. Ali Chilcott had Sharman LBW at 121, and Dixon caught Taylor on 127. Monk followed on 128, run out Billy Barriball, as the pressure mounted. At 130 Oldfield who had batted for nearly 2 hours was run out again by Barriball. Martin and Trott however calmed the situation and although Martin was bowled by Wyatt-Haines with 1 run required Gloucestershire crept home with 1 and a bit overs to spare and won by 3 wickets. Revenge for their 8 wicket defeat at the Festival!

Perhaps this was a match too far after the Festival as both sides were tired. Hopefully a number of lessons will have been learnt about how to bat, bowl and chase on a damp "sticky dog" wicket. Whilst there were a number of run outs due to good Devon fielding, perhaps we need to improve further, get lower as we walk in, antiscipate and stop those all important singles, which are so critical in this type, and for that, any type of match. Think on..

Our thanks to Plympton Cricket Club, Len, Ross, Keith and Karen on the day and to the umpires Paul and Dave.

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