Devon Cricket Board - Bradley and Thompson batten down hatches

Bradley and Thompson batten down hatches

DEVON go into their second day against Wiltshire at Exmouth with some catching up to do after the visitors racked up 357 all out then whittled out three for 53 in the last session.

Toby Davies scored a century and Joe Breet should have had one as well but was dismissed seven runs short on a good day for batters.

Davies shared in stands of 148 with Breet and 112 with Langford as Wiltshire reached 273 for five with 14 of their 90 overs to go.

Langford was next out for 60 – he came in and parked up after Wiltshire lost three wickets in 17 balls getting from 151 for one to 16 for four – which left Steve Bullen (45) and Tahir Afridi (20) to swish a few with the tail.

Devon’s bowlers kept going right to the end on a pitch with little in it for anyone, taking the final four wickets in the last nine overs to claim all four bonus points.

Anning got three wickets straight after lunch, Matt Kidd had a couple in the middle and there were wickets as part of the tidying up process for skipper Josh Bess – two in a row at the end – and Chris Bradley.

Bradley has been Devon’s workhorse this season in the spin bowling department and sent down 26 overs yesterday for figures of one for 82.

Keith Donohue, Devon’s director of cricket, said Bradley deserved better figures.

“He will bowl worse and get a five-for – that’s the way it is sometimes,” said Donohue.

“Chris bowled brilliantly, but it wasn’t going to be his day.”

Devon had to go in for the final 18 overs last night, never easy after a gruelling day in the field.

It didn’t go according to plan at first as openers James Toms and Rob Holman went in successive balls, followed by David Lye as Devon dipped to 21 for three after five overs.

Skipper Bess sent out former captain Bradley as nightwatchman with 13 overs to go with instructions to stick around.

Bradley followed the job description to the letter and was still there on 10 not out with Matt Thompson (20no) at last night’s close.

Devon’s front-five batting has been fragile more than once this season, despite numerous formulas being tried.

Donohue said it was only fair to give the players some allowance for the conditions.

“You spend all day in the field on a baking hot day, then go into bat for an hour of so feeling tired,” said Donohue.

“I bet if you look around the first day scores elsewhere there will be teams three of four down overnight.”

Wiltshire 357 (T P A Davies 109, J J Breet 93, H J Langford 60, S F G Bullen 45; J J Bess 3-61, T S Anning 3-70, M J L Kidd 2-48), Devon 53-3 T G Afridi 2-14).

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