With the initial ECB Competition games of the season
for the seventeen’s played over the first three days of the week the sixteen’s
took on Somerset at Taunton Deane on Thursday and Friday. Options on selection
were further reduced with the fifteens also playing on the first day. Devon lost the toss and fielded but struck early when
Jamie Drew trapped Baker in front with his first ball. Somerset’s second wicket added fifty-five in
fifteen overs when Henry Gater caught the home side’s captain, Underdown, off
Matthew Skeemer. The second opener Castledown was the next wicket to fall when
the captain, Marcus Hoddinott, held him off Ollie Dawe forty balls before
lunch. At lunch Devon were well placed having taken three
wickets in conceding ninety-five runs. They had bowled at a very good rate
completing thirty-six overs. However it was downhill after the break as Somerset advanced to 250 – 5 at tea. Devon had bowled thirty-seven overs in the two hour
session but conceded one hundred and fifty-five runs. The two wickets that fell
were Scriven providing Hoddinott with his second catch off Todd Rossouw and Patrick
Poustie achieved the single stumping of the summer in removing Eckland off the
captain. Post tea Somerset increased the tempo to set up a
declaration. They batted for another twenty-three overs scoring at nearly four
and a half with their keeper, Crane, setting the tone with a hundred. He was
the first to fall when Ollie Dawe bowled him; Rossouw took the other wicket
bowling Redrup. Somerset were 352-7 at the end of the ninety-sixth over when
they declared. Devon reached close of play on 11-0 off six
overs.
Another bright and hot summer’s day greeted the Devon openers Hoddinott and Skeemer but within eight balls Skeemer was joined by Reid Mawdsley as the captain was caught without addition to the overnight score. Mawdsley fell first ball, bowled by Britton. The score was advanced by nine when Skeemer was out. Seb Ansley helped add six off twenty balls with Henry Gater but was then caught behind. Gater was joined by Dan Wolf who had linked up with the side having played the previous day with the under 15s. The pair put on the best partnership of the innings contributing fifty-seven off ninety-seven balls. Gater tried another big leg side hit and was caught for a top score of thirty-five. This wicket fell in the twenty-third over of the morning and Devon were seventeen short of three figures and now five down. Jamie Lee fell in the thirty-sixth over and on the same score Wolf’s impressive debut ended. Ollie Dawe and Jack Thomas tried a different approach and reached lunch having put on twenty-three with three fours and a six. At lunch Devon were in dire straights on 113-7. It did not improve post lunch, the not out batsmen increased their partnership by seven when Thomas was out, Rossouw was leg before third ball and Poustie lasted five. Dawe was undefeated on twenty-three. Being two hundred and thirty behind unsurprisingly they were invited to bat again. Somerset had around sixty overs to win the game; it had taken them forty-four first time around to bowl out their visitors. Thirty of the overs were bowled before tea and Devon, after an excellent start, were still not out of the wood having lost four wickets and seventy-nine behind. The openers Skeemer and Hoddinott put on the best opening partnership of the summer scoring 113 off only one hundred and twenty-seven balls but both fell within sixteen balls. Skeemer had scored at a run a ball for his fifty and was eventually out for sixty-six. Fifteen were added by Gater and Mawdsley, whilst Ansley and Mawdsley put on seventeen. After tea Mawdsley, who was returning to this ground the next day with his club, and Wolf added thirty-five before Mawdsley was bowled after another useful contribution. At four thirty, after forty overs had been bowled despite Devon still being behind it was mutually agreed to finish the game early with Wolf unbeaten. |
Scorecard |