Devon Cricket Board - Devon Ladies hold nerve to win in last over

Devon Ladies hold nerve to win in last over

DEVON’S lady cricketers continue to lead the way in Division Two of the ECB Women’s County Championship after a hard fought win against Worcestershire at Sidmouth. Wickets were hard to come by as over 500 runs were scored in the day as Devon maintained their unbeaten start and place at the top of the table with a nine run victory.
Having won the toss, skipper Jodie Dibble opted to bat first, after the early loss of Plymouth’s Claire Varcoe, who had started so well with two beautiful cover drives for four Amara Carr and Rosalie Fairbairn set about laying the foundation for a sizeable total with a 2nd wicket century stand.
Carr (26) fell to a mistimed drive looking to go down the track, caught at mid off. Fairbairn maintained the momentum as she continued to pierce the infield before being clean bowled for an 83 ball 76 which included 9 fours.
Ali Kelly and Jodie Dibble continued to take the attack to the tired Worcestershire bowling attack as the pair added a further 84 for the 4th wicket.
Both eventually fell to run outs as they looked to accelerate, Dibble for 40 from 42 balls with Kelly completing her maiden senior half-century, 55 from 80 balls. Devon scored 75 from their last ten overs, 41 from the last five, with an important contribution of 20 from 13 balls by Cait O’Keefe. Devon closed on what looked like an imposing 261-5 from their 50 overs.
Worcestershire responded very well with bat, two seventy plus partnerships for the 1st and 2nd wickets kept them firmly up with the rate.
They were aided by some wayward bowling which once again leaked too many wide deliveries but Jodie Dibble 2-28 and Hannah Linton 1-40 bowled well enough to give Devon control back in the middle and latter part of the reply.
A late scare in the 49th over for Devon as Rachel Baldwin hit 13 to leave Worcestershire requiring 10 from the last over to win was soon put to rest as Hannah Linton took the last wicket with the first ball of the final over, clean bowling Olivia Tew.
An unforgiving pitch for the bowlers, that said Devon can take great heart from the fact that they once again took ten wickets to set up an intriguing date with Lancashire next weekend. Certainly work to do to reduce the wide count but some outstanding ground fielding and good catches ensured that Devon captured maximum points which keeps their noses ahead of the red rose county ahead of the clash at Urmston CC, Manchester on June 22

DCB Ltd, University of Exeter Sports Hall, Stocker Road, Exeter, Devon EX4 4QN Company Registration Number: 7024773