Dartington & Totnes II 90 all out, Ashburton II 91 for 3
Ashburton won by 7 wickets
Following the terrific Brockman Cup win it was back to earth with a bang for Dartington & Totnes seconds as Ashburton comprehensively outplayed them in this Devon League encounter.
After inserting the home side Ashburton’s opening bowlers were on top form bowling a good line and length and finding prodigious movement. The pitch was playing low and slow and none of Dartington & Totnes’ batsmen, other than Joe Hockings, managed to come to terms with it. Cliff Lowe was unlucky to chop a ball from Harvey onto his stumps, Paul Taylor hit two sweet cover drives for four and them succumbed lbw to a swinging full delivery from Harvey.
Nikheel Jina, making his League debut following his Brockman Cup heroics earlier in the week, showed promise but mistimed a delivery from Harvey (4 for 24), to be caught at mid on for 10- the only player other than Hockings to reach double figures. Hockings, batting at four, reined in his normal aggressive instincts and played a composed and restrained innings, whilst wickets tumbled around him with frightening regularity. He was ninth man out for 26, bowled by Dom Durman (3 for 10). Extras were second top scorer with 20.
90 runs were never going to be enough against a strong Ashburton team. It didn’t help that the low bounce the Ashes bowlers found did not seem to be replicated when D&T bowled. D&T’s bowlers failed to get an early breakthrough. Liam Bligh (3 for 21) took all three Ashburton wickets to fall and his bowling was one of the few positives the home side could take from the game.