Devon Cricket Board - 2015 Devon U10s v Dorset Report

2015 Devon U10s v Dorset Report

2015 v Dorset team photo

Devon u10s v Dorset 28th May 2015

After the confidence building warm up win over Devon Lions, the Under 10s played their first 'full' county match in sunny Weymouth against a strong Dorset side fresh from a victory over a 1st class county in the shape of Sussex.

What materialised was a game in which, at the half-way points of both innings, Devon looked odds-on favourites to win, but alas they managed to salvage defeat from the jaws of victory.

A measure of the host's confidence was their decision to bat first (Devon would have done the same) so the bowlers were given first crack at making inroads into the game. Dorset's top order never looked fully confident in the face of a stern test from Butler and Popham with the latter claiming the first wicket. The first change for Devon saw Tapley into the attack to replace Butler and the Ipplepen man quickly reduced Dorset to 40/3 in the 13th over with a brace of wickets in successive balls (best not to ask what happened to the hat-trick ball though!)

More excellent support bowling from Whittaker and Nickell kept the pressure on, and although Devon shelled a couple of simple catches, they were still fully in the driving seat as a 4th wicket fell immediately after drinks with wicketkeeper Walker showing great awareness to stump Hooker off the bowling of Ford. 66/4 in the 21st over and Devon in the driving seat.

From that point on, things went a little wrong for Devon, although more due to excellent batting from Dorset than any particular fault with the bowling. Laird and Stewart both showed great power and attacking intent, flaying the ball all around a sizeable outfield. For the first time this season, Devon were under pressure, and a few silly fielding errors crept in. Some of the field placings by Devon were also slightly unusual with several close catchers around the wicket even as the scoreboard started rattling around - something to work on in future games!

The Dorset pair added 50 runs in just over 10 overs, until the partnership was ended by the returning Butler cleaning up Stewart before Popham snared his 2nd victim with the big wicket of Laird - dismissed for an agonising 49.

By the end of the 40 overs Dorset had amassed 154/6 - not an intimidating total on a sound wicket - but more of a challenge than looked likely with nearly 90 runs being added by the lower order for the loss of just 2 wickets. Butler, Popham and Tapley all finished with 2 wickets apiece whilst a team total of just 6 wides in 40 overs was outstanding accuracy with 9 different bowlers used.

To win the game, Devon needed a solid platform and despite the early loss of Jones - caught off a leading edge - Pascoe and Ford set about the total in assured fashion. With a healthy contribution of extras from the wayward Dorset openers, the scoreboard was ticking along nicely until Pascoe spooned a wide long-hop tamely to gully to be caught for 23.

Despite this setback, Devon continued in steady fashion with Ford and Jeacock seeing the visitors through to just short of 100 at the drinks break. 60 runs were needed from the final 20 overs with 8 wickets in hand and the 'best' of the Dorset bowlers having posed little threat. What could go wrong?

The answer was that perhaps Devon had not seen the best of the Dorset bowlers at that point. The introduction of Berridge's spin and the left arm pace of Smith changed the face of the game as Devon lost 3 key wickets with the score on 98 - Ford clean bowled followed by Jeacock and Whittaker both given out LBW by the "enthusiastic" Dorset umpires.

A slight cameo partnership between Butler and Wakler offered some hope for Devon who still only needed 40 runs for victory with plenty of overs left, but more good work from Smith and Berridge acocunted for them and the remainder of the lower order with Popham the last man out and Devon still 30 runs short.

The most telling statistic of the innings was that the first 3 partnerships for Devon - 31, 32 and 35 - contributed nearly 80% of the innings runs and one other partnership of 30 plus from the middle order would have won the game.

Still, the theme for this season is learning curves, and with plenty of positives to take from the game, things were certainly not all doom and gloom despite a very lengthy journey home!

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