TUESDAY, MAY 30

DEVON'S long, unbeaten streak in matches with Dorset continued with a thoroughly workmanlike six-wicket win with an entire session to spare.

   Dorset haven't beaten Devon since the August Bank Holiday weekend of 1997 when they won a rain-affected game at Bournemouth by seven wickets. Stuart Rintoul, who went on to captain Dorset and now plays for Exmouth, hit an unbeaten 77 in that long-ago win.

   Since then the best Dorset have managed are two draws and their weren't too many times in this meeting when they looked like improving on that record.

   In a low-scoring game it was Devon who dominated the majority of the sessions with a team display that captain Bob Dawson rightly described as “watchful” in his post-match appraisal.

   Conditions made it that way – blame the weather not the preparation for that – as the pitch was unpredictable and moist to start with, then largely lifeless as it dried out over the next three days.

   Runs had to be chiseled out and wickets earned – no freebies in this game – and it turned out that Devon had a marginally better temperament for the conditions.

   “You had to be watchful and patient all the time, whether you were batting or bowling,” said Dawson.

   “I think the main difference between us was we were a little more watchful and a lot more patient than they were.

   “It was never easy to bat, you had to work for your runs, but Dorset forgot that late on the first day when they lost seven for 18. They were impatient to push the score along and that allowed us to get ahead on first innings, not by much, but enough just to establish a bit of superiority.”

   It's hard to argue with Dawson's summing up, even though his own middle and lower-order batsman were guilty of getting out cheaply in the first innings. The difference was Devon were ahead, only by 27 admittedly, but psychologically that was important.

   Going into day three Dorset were 185 for eight - a lead of 158 – with a minimum target of 220 in mind to have a chance of beating Devon again.

   Once Devon got Dorset all out for 213, leaving a to-win target of 187 in a minimum of 81 overs, it was only a case of how many of them Devon would use up.

   The answer proved to be 54 before David Lye hit the final ball prior to the tea interval through the extra-cover boundary for the match-winning runs.

   Openers Matt Hunt and Richard Foan knocked off the first 84, at which point Dawson knew the game was as good as won.

   Foan made 49 off 100 balls and only missed out on his half-century by going after a ball he should have left alone and, off balance, hitting it to mid-off.

   Dawson was deceived by a Tom Hicks arm-ball and lobbed it straight back to the bespectacled off-spinner with 25 added to the total – most of them scored by Hunt.

   Hunt was next to go when he hit a decent length ball from Rupert Kitzinger on the up straight to Hicks at extra-cover.

   By the time Hunt went the target was down to 36, and when Neil Hancock was rapped on the pad by Kitzinger it was 25 to win with six wickets in hand.

   David Court, with a brisk 31 off 23 balls which included 30 in boundaries, and Lye knocked off the final few needed with the minimum of effort.

First and second days