Thursday 24th July 2003 at Bovey Tracey CC

Friendly County Fixture/50 Overs

Surrey 241 for 7. S Ratnayeke 48, L Evans 46
Devon 185 all out. R Acton 40, S Knight 39, J Bess 36,

S Paynton 5 for 23.

Devon’s under 15s suffered their first defeat since the 2001 season, a remarkable record which includes 11 previous games this season. There can be no excuses, we were outplayed on the day and at no time were we able to dictate the game. Devon were without 3 players at the Bunbury Festival but Surrey were similarly depleted.
Surrey won the toss , batted and were given a sound start of 37 for the first wicket. Thereafter loose bowling and shoddy fielding in the face of aggressive batting ensured that Surrey were able to reach a final total of 241. Evans and Meaker put on 53 in quick time for the seventh wicket and it was disappointing that we showed little idea of how to counteract this.
National finals against quality opposition are likely to see similar situations arising and disciplined bowling on one side of the wicket with appropriate field placings (including sweepers) will be essential.

The required total was always going to be daunting but yet again Devon were given an excellent start of 61 by Bess and Bowser. However the run out of Bowser and the introduction of spin saw Devon reduced to 76 for 7 and in reality the chance of winning had quickly disappeared. Batters showed little or no idea of how to cope with the turning ball, particularly off Paynton who finished with the excellent figures of 10 1 23 5.
Steve Knight (39) and Ross Acton (40) played particularly well in putting on 54
for the 8th wicket which also gave some respectability to the final result.
One defeat against a good side could be considered to be of little significance when set against the many wins and progress to the final stages of two national competitions, however lessons must continue to be learnt if the players are to develop and realise their full potential. Poorly directed bowling of inconsistent length does not permit fields to be set and makes it impossible to control the game. Poor concentration and lack of urgency in the field takes pressure off batsmen allowing them easy runs and they are able to dictate the pattern of play.
Batting against a turning ball on a helpful pitch is something which has posed problems for batsmen at all levels over many years and no one is suggesting it is easy, but some sort of game plan needs to be in all batters minds. Watching the play carefully before going in to bat can certainly help this process.

But let us not be too self critical, we have demonstrated very clearly that we are a good side with the potential to do well at the final stages of national competitions. I have little doubt that we will respond well to one blip on the records, starting with the game against Cornwall on Monday and then the National County cup quarter final on August 3rd.                              Back