Devon vs Dorset, 28th May at Axminster CC

For the third time in three matches Emily Ward lost the toss and was put into bat on a hard but green Axminster pitch. The slight shuffle in the Devon batting order meant that it was Lydia Harris and Claire Varcoe to open. Devon once again looked shaky after the early loss of Claire Varcoe in the second over. This brought Anna Cherrington to the crease to join Lydia in another fantastic partnership of 157 for the second wicket. Lydia scored runs freely as she hit boundaries at regular intervals, whilst Anna did excellently to rotate the strike. Despite being dropped in the nervous 90s Lydia managed to secure her first century retiring on 101 in the 28 th over, bringing Alli Kelly to the crease. Devon lost their third and final wicket on the second to last ball of the innings when Anna, 49, was run out attempting a run to the keeper to regain the strike. Despite the run out, Devon's running between the wickets was excellent throughout, evident by Anna's innings of 49 made up of just five 2s and the rest singles. Devon surpassed their previous highest total to eventually finish on 188 off their 30 overs.

In reply Dorset never really looked like reaching the Devon total. They batted sensibly to the first drinks break but were held to 28-0 off the first 10 overs due to some tight Devon bowling. The very next over after drinks however, started the Dorset collapse. Cait O'Keefe, 2-2, bowled both the opening batsman allowing the rest of the Devon bowlers to pick up wickets regularly for the rest of the innings. Both the bowling and fielding was excellent as 8 of the Dorset batsman were bowled, whilst the number 5, Lowman, was run out due to a direct hit from Alli Kelly. Hettie Burrows bowled well to finish with figures of 2-10 and Katie Chisholm, 3-3, bowled nice and straight to finish off the Dorset tail. Having previously conceded over 100 in the two games against Somerset and Wiltshire, it was nice to keep Dorset to the relatively modest total of 63 all out.

Thank you to Axminster CC for their excellent hospitality throughout and a special thank you to Jackie for scoring the entire game despite the attack on the Dorset scorer with a foam ball from the Devon management.

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