Devon Cricket Board - Devon facing follow on fear against Herefordshire

Devon facing follow on fear against Herefordshire

DEVON have got some work to do against Herefordshire to stay in the game after a disappointing first day at Colwall.

Herefordshire made 344 for seven in 90 overs – Ben Stebbings top scoring on 133 – which Devon’s management were not too unhappy about.

The pitch was flat – it flattened out even more once the shine went off the ball – and the reasoning was there were plenty more runs where Herefordshire’s came from.

That was before Devon dipped to 40 four at last night’s close, all four wickets falling to spinners.

The start figures are Devon trail by 304 going into the second day and have to reach 195 to avoid following on and making Herefordshire bat again.

Devon’s best spell was before lunch when they reduced Herefordshire to 120 for four.

Josh Bess made the first breakthrough of the day when he had Nipesh Patel caught by a diving Mark Orchard in the covers.

Herefordshire’s 38 for one running total become 38 for two a couple of balls later when next man in Mike O’Shea had a swish and was caught by Orchard off a top edge.

Surviving opener Liam Gwynne was third to go before lunch: caught in the slips by Bess off Orchard for 22.

Bess turned to Bradley as lunchtime approached hoping he could spin his way to another breakthrough.

Bradley duly obliged in his third over by having Brad Wadlan caught low down in the covers by his Bovey Tracey team-mate Matt Golding.

Walker (39no) and Ben Stebbings (15no) saw Herefordshire through to the break without further mishap, apart from losing a ball in the hedge!

Herefordshire moved on to 265 for five at tea with Ben Stebbings clearly heading for a century.

Stebbings, the new Herefordshire skipper, moved on from 15 not out at lunch to 91 at tea.

It was a near-chanceless knock and the only time he hit the ball in the air was when he smashed leg-spinner Matt Golding for six.

The only wicket to fall in the 41 overs between lunch and tea was Charlie Walker, who was caught at mid-on by Orchard off Anning.

Stebbings and Cox put on 193 – a new record partnership for Herefordshire’s sixth wicket – as Devon toiled up to tea and past it for a break.

Spinner Chris Bradley bore the brunt of the bowling burden, bowling 28 overs for 87 runs and not getting a wicket until the 89^th over. David Lye kept the runs down at the other end.

Herefordshire had reached 333 when the stand was finally broken: Stebbings pulling Lye to the mid-wicket boundary where Callum Whittaker took the catch.

Bradley earned Devon a third bonus bowling point in the penultimate over when he dismissed Chris Powell.

Danny Cox finished undefeated on 80.

Devon had to bat out the final 17 overs last night and things didn’t go quite to plan.

Stebbings had a spinner on from the start and was rewarded three times over.

Brad Wadlan had Whittaker caught at point, Seb Benton snapped up first ball at short-leg then made it three in five balls when Lye went caught behind.

Mohammad Pardesi came on as a second spinner for two overs and picked up surviving opener Rob Holman with a stumping.

Herefordshire 344-7 (B R W Stebbings 133, D J M Cox 80no, C A M Walker 57; J J Bess 2-32, C Bradley 2-87), Devon 40-4 (R J Holman 23; B L Wadlan 3-10).

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