Fine work in the field

v Hampshire at Braunton CC on Sunday 17th June, 2007

With the north of the county surviving most of the weekend's rain, Hampshire won the toss and chose to bat in bright, fresh conditions. It was sedate and steady progress until the 10th over when Cameron Grainger dived full length legside to remove Hind off Ryan Skinner. In the next over Jack Hughes trapped Stone leg before and in his next over he bowled Arnold to put Devon on top at 47-3 in the 13th over. Addyman and Parsons dug in and Devon tried a variety of bowling and bowlers to break their increasingly confident fightback, but to little avail. Finally in the 30th over they took the pace off the ball completely, turning to the leg-spin of Freddie Gabbitass. Three balls in to the over Grainger had Parsons stumped and Devon were back in the hunt. Pressure began to build on Hampshire as Gabbitass and the slow left arm of Dan Winsor slowed them down to only 9 runs off the next 7 overs. Fearing total stagnation Hampshire grabbed the bull by the horns and hit 22 off the next 3 - and when Gabbitass got his 2nd wicket (another stumping by Grainger) Hampshire were 138 for 5 in the 40th over. They should have got more, but rather lost their way after Sam DeFriend had Addyman caught by Will Steward for 65. George Stephenson then ran out Prentice and as Hampshire's tail picked up scrambled singles towards the end they fell victim to some very straight bowling from DeFriend who finished with 4 for 18 to cap a fine Devon performance in the field.

With the general concensus being that 163 would be a getable total, Dom Bracher and Freddie Gabbitass opened up. The Hampshire new ball bowlers had other ideas though and were ungenerous in the extreme. In the 7th over with only 10 on the board, Gabbitass got one of the day's unplayable balls and was bowled. Bracher and Cameron Grainger dug in, saw off the the openers and began to score more freely off the change bowling. At 60-1 in the 21st over everything looked well under control....and then  .... Bracher, previously untroubled, was bowled by the spinner, Myers - Grainger was caught off the impressive Hickman, who then promptly bowled George Stephenson and Will Steward in consecutive balls. It was now 80-5 in the 28th over and Devon were losing wickets and falling behind the clock.

The lower order rebuilds - again

Jack Lilly D’Cruz and Sam DeFriend set about restoring Devon's momentum with some positive shots and excellent taking of singles. They increasingly dominated and the Hampshire bowlers and fielders seemed to have no answer to their brilliant approach. When Lilly D'Cruz launched Covey for 6 it was the high point of the Devon assault and took them to 136-5, needing only 28 from 44 balls. However - it was only to be as close as that. The change of ball (it was lost in the cornfield) brought a total change of fortune. Lilly D'Cruz was immediately stumped, Jacob Crouch was runout without scoring and when DeFriend was caught off the returning Hickman in the 42nd over it was 146 for 8, 18 still needed and wickets and overs running out. ...and Run out was the form of dismissal for Jack Hughes and Andy Collier leaving Ryan Skinner not out at the end as proceedings finished in something of a scramble to reach the unreachable.

Coming so close has everyone looking at all the fine details....and the irony is that Devon had the best of about 65% of the game. Harsh lessons for faint hearts though, but also some fine individual contributions - none more so than Man of the Match Sam DeFriend, who excelled with bat and ball.

Fielding

Runouts - Stephenson

Stumpings - Grainger 2

Catches - Grainger, Steward 1

Devon lost by 11 runs

Sam Defriend