Devon Cricket Board - B Division - Alphas bring in Raheja

B Division - Alphas bring in Raheja

ALPHINGTON skipper Stuart Shaw wants to put the disappointing defeat at Ivybridge to one side with a win at Stoke Gabriel
New signing Dinesh Raheja – a left-armer who bats – is now in place and former Essex II spinner Paul James returns. No wonder Shaw is upbeat.
“I am looking to putting the first game behind us with a positive result,” said Shaw.
“Although am looking to our younger players to lead the line, it will help having the quality Paul James and Dinesh will bring to the side.
“It's a short season so we will have to start playing the cricket I know we can now rather than later on. “
Stoke Gabriel skipper Josh Dowling has reacted to last Saturday’s defeat by Chudleigh with some fine-tuning.
“We have made a few changes that should see us stronger than the team against Chudleigh,” said Dowling.
“There are a few changes in the batting order this week with Kris Davis and Mark Newman coming into the top six.
“We have worked on reducing the amount of extras (wides) at training and looking for a big improvement from our bowlers.”
Chudleigh hope to keep their winning run going when they visit Shobrooke Park.
Skipper Jon Martin felt Chudleigh made hard work of beating Stoke and haven’t learned lessons from last season.
“We continued from last year bowling a side out cheaply then losing early wickets and making a bit of a hash if the run chase.
“If we continue to do that it will become very tedious.”
Jack Vittles is back at university so Dan Britcliffe comes in to strengthen the batting line up.
Shobrooke slipped up at Lewdown last Saturday and skipper Justin Dollow is anxious to avoid a repeat.
“This is an important game for us and we will need a win to get our 2013 campaign off the ground,” said Dollow.
“Chudleigh are a good side so we will have to be at our best if we are to get the result we want.
“Our top order will need to perform a lot better than last week, but I am confident our players have the ability to do well in this division.”
Batter Dan Pyle is back on school cricket so Cliff Dare comes in.
Ivybridge skipper Gareth Andrews wants some tighter cricket from his men even though they won first time out against Alphington.
“I am looking to tidy things up a bit after three run outs in our innings and having Alpington 86-6 then letting them get 180 odd,” said Andrews.
“Having said that I was really happy with the start, but think this week will be a better indicator of were we are.”
Spinners Adam Birch and Harry Solomon are no available but can’t get in.”
Tavvy captain Shaun Daymond is confident, hardly surprising after the 136-run win over Barnstaple & Pilton.
Opening bowler Lee Baker returns, Chris Hutchins adds extra depth with the ball and Tim Pope comes in.
“Looking to be positive going on from last week’s performance,” said Daymond.
“Ivybridge had a great start last week so it will be a good game.”
Thorverton captain James Hope has been working out getting the error count down for the game against Lewdown.
Thors beat South Devon by 13 runs last Saturday, but Hope admitted it was a struggle.
“We have been looking at our bowling disciplines, trying to cut out that boundary ball each over,” said Hope.
Team news is two changes due to injury. Jake Choules and Andrew Codling up from the 2^nd XI to replace Barton and Hilton.”
Lewdown will be without Sam Ewen, who played in the win over Shobrooke, and will make a late decision on a replacements.
The Williams brothers and Ed Squire remain unavailable for another week.
Skipper Harry Geering said Lewdown will have to play better if they want to win again.
“Last week we bowled very well on a good track and chased the runs down well.
“If I was being picky I would say two wickets we lost we gifted them.
“Other than that a similar performance would be good, although I expect Thorverton will be stronger than Shobrooke.”
South Devon captain Jonty Parsons wants to converted a narrow defeat by Thorverton into a win at Barnstaple.
“We've just got to make sure we follow on from last week in the same manner, bowl to our field and frustrate batsmen out and not force the issue at any point whilst batting,” said Parsons.
“Last week we took advantage of the two scoring balls per over without taking any needless risk and the runs came easily.
“It's exactly how we should bat, whether we're batting first or second, throughout the season, controlled with good application and game craft.”
Paul Hooper is unavailable but Ali Wright can play and comes in.

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