Jono discovers he can play second team cricket with man of match performance

Plymouth III 161 all out,  Dartington & Totnes II 162 for 8

Dartington & Totnes (20 points – or was it 19?) beat Plymouth (8 points) by 2 wickets.

Ten man D&T won a thrilling match with one wicket to spare thanks to a magnificent innings from Jono Colegate.  Jono almost singlehandedly won the match scoring 91 not out in a thrilling display of hitting against the second team in the Division who had won their previous 8 matches.   Scott Colegate, with 10, was the only other D&T player to reach double figures on an unpredictable wicket.    (Daz wanted acknowledgement that there were 5 Colegates in the side plus him umpiring.  In fact Daz had a very good game!)

Josh Bowhay dropped out on Saturday morning and with Glenn delayed by having to work we took to the field with 9 players.   Of those Neil was slowed down by having been kicked by a bull on the previous day, or so he claimed, and Mick had a dodgy hamstring.  Gav won the toss, consulted his oracle and chose to field but Plymouth got off to a good start and were scoring at 5 an over with the aggressive Claire Varcoe striking the ball well and fellow opener Jon Cummings offering good support.  Varcoe (23) was undone by a delivery from Steve Mudge which rose off a length and she could only fend it to Neil at slip.  Joe Parker then took the important wicket of former Devon player, David Burke, who edged to Neil.  Neil completed his hat trick of catches by taking a fine low catch after Scott found Knapman’s edge, the ball ricocheting off keeper PT’s gloves, reducing Plymouth to 50 for 3.  Cummings continued to play well adding 22 with Edmonds before Scott (2 for 15) bowled Edmonds with a jaffa, in a fine spell.

This brought Plymouth’s ebullient captain, Phil Taylor to the crease.   Plymouth had been pegged back and Taylor decided they need to accelerate and he hit Mick for 3 boundaries before Mick had the last laugh, bowling him for 19 and dismissing Grigg with a caught and bowled in the same over.

Cummings had held the innings together but Jono hit his middle stump with a fast Yorker, ending his innings on 42.  When Haffenden skied a delivery from Glenn,  PT was waiting with his gloves and Plymouth were well and truly on the ropes at 119 for 8, with little experienced batting remaining.  Somehow they managed to get off the hook, helped by several extras.  Carlisle and Morgan got the score to 145 before Mudgey (2 for 25) bowled Carlisle for 8.  Finally, with one ball remaining Glenn bowled Morgan for 17.

At tea the discussion was about how much influence the pitch might play in our reply.   We got off to a disastrous start losing PT in the first over.   Burke’s first two deliveries were legside wides and his third ball seemed to be heading in the same direction, despite striking PT on the pad.  However,  Plymouth’s umpire had his finger raised almost before the appeal, with PT staring back at him with incredulity.  Worse was to follow as Gavin Colegate holed out to mid-on off Grigg  in the next over.   Joe  and Scott seemed to be weathering the storm but after hitting a boundary off Phil Taylor, Joe (9) was bowled with the next delivery, with Taylor crowing like a cockerel at 4am.

Burke bowled Scott with a delivery which kept low which brought Jono to the crease.  Neil became Burke’s third victim, caught behind for 3.  Jono was  playing some positive shots but Glenn became the fourth Colegate back in the pavilion when he was caught behind off Marker for 3.  We were staring down the barrel of a gun at 85 for 6.    Last week Jono had convinced himself he couldn’t play second team cricket, reeling off a list of excuses: ‘leaves on the line, broken down engine, staff shortages, signalling failure, frozen points’ -that sort of thing.  However, Jono was fired up and wasn’t going to surrender without a fight and kept finding the boundary, adding 33 with Mudgey for the 7th wicket.   Mudgey struggled after being hit in the ribs by another delivery which rose off a full length and was eventually caught at mid-on off Marker for 6, attempting to hit over the top.   Jono had reached 64 not out at this point but he seemed likely to run out of partners.

Thanks to Jono another 15 valuable runs were added for the eighth wicket despite John Stanlake failing to score before being lbw to Taylor.   28 more runs were required when last man, Mick came the crease.   The Plymouth team continued chirruping but this gradually became more muted except for their skipper, as Jono took the game away from them.  Jono, pumped up and playing with great determination, managed to take the lion’s share of the strike, turning down numerous singles and continually hitting powerful drives.  His fantastic match winning innings included fourteen fours and one six.

Mick did have an over of leg spin to negotiate, leaving the first 4 deliveries before pulling a full toss to the midwicket boundary to rousing cheers.

Jono took 11 off the next over but it was a bit of an anti-climax when, with five runs required, Knapman’s first delivery went for 5 wides and we achieved our fourth win out of five matches with six overs remaining.    The seconds have now climbed off bottom spot and are only a few points away from the 2 teams immediately above them.

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