Devon Cricket Board - Devon Indoor Competition

Devon Indoor Competition - The Final

Abbotskerswell CC v. Cornwood CC

Upon winning the toss, Cornwood captain Warren had no hesitation in electing to bat first.
Openers Harris and Horwell, as in their semi-final, looked to play with ‘soft-hands’ and run positively, although this was proving
difficult against some excellent tight bowling from initially Whitlock and then Codd, both who bowled with control and a maturity that
belies their youth.
The break-through came in the 3^rd over when Harris (5) failed to make his ground and was run out with the score on 12, Hall (7) similarly
found the bowling difficult to manoeuvre around, and also fell to a run out from a smart piece of fielding in the 5^th over with the score on 27.
Next over Horwell (18) departed run out with 37 on the board.

As sometimes happens, Cornwood’s strength of running between the wickets was proving to be their downfall, and if the spectators thought
that Warren and Butterworth would be a bit more circumspect for the remainder of the innings, they were wrong as both batsmen nudged
and nurdled the ball into spaces and continued to run positively adding an important 31 runs before Butterworth (15) was superbly caught
by Codd off the bowling of Garratt with the score on 68 in the 10^th over. Next man Goodliffe (9) batted in similar vein and when he departed
run out (the fourth of the innings) in the last over, he had helped Warren (23no) push the Cornwood total up to 97 from their allotted 12 overs.

Abbotskerswell bowled and fielded superbly, they didn’t concede a single boundary during their innings and more importantly only sent down
six wides (the majority of the 20 extras being leg-byes). Whitlock in particular was impressive, and can be proud that his 3 over spell only
went for 8 runs (and 3 of them were off his last ball!) against a strong batting line-up.

Cornwood knew that they would need to bowl and field well if they were to defend their total, and it would be interesting to see how Abbotskerswell would go about their chase, would they rely on the big-shots or look to run and pressurise the fielding side.

Garratt having hit the ‘wall’ for 3 singles off the opening Goodliffe over could only look on as his partner Fulner (0) fall 4^th ball of the next
as Hall pouched the catch off the bowling of Butterworth. Bowman (10) looked solid and untroubled until he was clean bowled by an excellent
delivery again from Butterworth with the score on 21 in the 4^th over. Codd (2) became the 3^rd wicket when he was called for a run but fell
well short with the total on 35.

At the end of the 6^th over (half-way) both sides were 37 for 3, but Abbotskerswell had a slight advantage in that opener Garratt was still
at the crease and both of Cornwood’s senior bowlers had finished their spells.

Unfortunately for Abbotskerswell the next 3 overs turned the match in favour of their opponents, as Harris bowled a fine opening over
for just 3 runs and then followed it with a maiden (a rare breed seldom seen in Indoor Cricket), and sandwiched in between Warren bowled Whitlock (2) leaving them on 48 for 4 with 3 overs remaining. Harrison-Roberts (3) was run out in the 10^th with the score 57, leaving Garratt
to try and get the necessary 41 runs off the remaining 12 balls.

Having hit the first ball to the ‘wall’ for a single, Garratt (31) was caught by Hall to earn Harris a deserved wicket and the impressive
figures of 1/4 off 2.3 overs.

Match Scorecard

Match Officials

Jim Anning, Nick Forbes, Andy Forward

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