Devon bury Berkshire bogey with 43-run win | 'Defending a low score means you have to take your chances when they come along and we did with a truly gritty team performance' – skipper James Horler

CONRAD SUTCLIFFE REPORTING
Scorecard

DEVON skipper James Horler is aiming to reach the last eight of the NV-Play Trophy unbeaten after seeing off Berkshire in round two of the pool games.

Horler and Devon arrived in Newbury without a win over Berkshire in ANY competition – three-day, one-day or Twenty20 – since 2018. Being dismissed for 189 wasn’t encouraging.

Bowling Berkshire out for 146 to win by 43 runs buried that bogey once and for all – and fired-up the Devon side for rounds three and four.

Devon face Wiltshire at Warminster today (Bank Holiday Monday) looking for the third straight win that would guarantee qualification for the quarter-finals with a home game against Hertfordshire to spare. Reaching the last eight isn’t enough for Horler: he wants a 100 per cent record too.

“We had never beaten Berkshire in the six years I have been playing against them – and doing it was like a coming of age for the team,” said Horler.

“We have got into good positions before in the group stages, but Berkshire have always been the hiccough. 

“The lads have worked hard over the winter to make ourselves stronger in white-ball cricket and beating Berkshire showed it was worth it.  

“If we beat Wiltshire we will qualify for the quarter-finals: we can crown that by qualifying four-out-of-four.”

Spin was king for Devon in the round-one win over Herefordshire at Bovey Tracey. It was a similar story against Berkshire.

Two wickets for ex-captain Jamie Stephens (2-27), who was deputising for the unavailable Sam Read, two more apiece for Callum Harvey (2-7) and Matt Whalley (2-25), and one for Harry Passenger concluded an impressive Devon performance in the field.

“Defending a low score means you have to take your chances when they come along and we did with a truly gritty team performance,” said Horler.

Devon’s all-out total of 189 relied heavily on lots of modest chip-ins layered between stick-around knocks of 39 from Seb Linnitt, Harvey’s 30 and Whalley’s studious 29 not out going in at seven.

Harvey and Whalley sixth-wicket stand of 43 got Devon up to 149. Whalley added 40 more with the lower-quartile batters, which ultimately took the game away from Berkshire.

“It wasn’t quite the pitch we were expecting to bat on – certainly not one someone would go out and smack a hundred on – but not as difficult as the scores suggest,” said Horler.

Devon have learned the hard way in the past that Berkshire have the depth to play their way out of trouble. They might have been reduced to 64 for six in 20 overs, but it was not over yet.

Skipper Andy Rishton (27) and Ben Salter (24) followed Devon’s example by batting time while putting together a stand of 52.

Once Whalley accounted for Rishton then Salter seven runs apart, Berkshire slid to 146 all out.

[O] WILTSHIRE opened their Trophy campaign with a 77-run victory under the DLS method over Herefordshire at Colwall where rain forced a late start and an early finish.

Wiltshire were struggling at 89 for five before they were revived by a sixth-wicket partnership of 55 between captain Ed Young (68) and William Brown (51) which lifted them to 219.

Herefordshire – with the exception of captain Luke Tulacz (47) – found batting even more difficult and had laboured to 121 for eight in 39 overs when rain halted played, well adrift of their required DLS calculation.