Devon Cricket Board - Ivybridge indebted to De Silva for a ton

Ivybridge indebted to De Silva for a ton

JEEWAN De Silva was easily Ivybridge’s man of the match in a 10-run win over lowly Barnstaple & Pilton.
The Bridge were indebted to DeSilva for his 101-run contribution to their total of 187 all out.
The Sri Lankan all-rounder went in after Paul Schiller (2-37) had knocked over openers Jake Zimmerman and Ramesh Perera for 21 between them.
DeSilva was ninth man out on 185 for Ivybridge, whose next best score was 15 from Adam Huxtable.
In a stand of 54 for the ninth wicket with George Thompson, DeSilva made 42 and Thompson just five.
DeSilva dispatched nine fours and two sixes before James Russell (2-14) got him out.
The Barnstaple bowling effort was hindered by losing Devon paceman Jack Popham to an ankle injury after one over.
Barnstaple, battling hard to dodge the drop, went for it all the way down and at 175 for seven with three overs to go were slight favourites.
Shaun Cole had made 54 and Russell 26 – and Mark Metters was still there on 25.
Inevitably, it was DeSilva who took the vital wicket, bowling Metters to add to the earlier scalp of Steve Moore.
The tail folded in a hurry with DaSilva (3-39) and Zimmerman (2-28) wrapping things up.
With top two Tavistock (183pts) and Bideford (170) both losing, Ivybridge are only three points off the promotion places.
Skipper Gareth Andrews agrees it is a good place to be, but isn’t sure Ivybridge are plaing well enough to take the next step.
“Not our best performance of the season by a long way but we managed to get through another tight game,” said Andrews.
“Jeewan was the difference the sides and Barnstaple probably a little unlucky.
“We will need to improve over the next few weeks.”

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