On a cooler evening following the blistering heatwave, Thors travelled to the County Ground to take on Exeter in the Covid Cup. Ben Slaviero won the toss and elected to bat on a rock hard pitch. Thors line up:-
L.Vukusic, S.Jefferson, H.Choules+, J.Van Der Meulen, B.Heard, J.Porter, B.Slaviero*, A.Jopling, J.Stirling, S.Tait, E.Vukusic
Jefferson and L.Vukusic opened on a pacey pitch and took 17 from the first two overs, assisted by a nine ball over from Gore and a couple of boundaries. Vukusic hit the first six of the innings over long on off Lovell, only to try and emulate it 3 balls later and was out for ten, caught by Dube.
Jefferson & Choules slowly built the foundations for the innings, aided by some phenomenal running between the wickets. Thors 36-1 at the end of the first powerplay.
The pair stuck around and started to up the tempo, including Choules striking two large straight sixes off Billy Buckingham to take the score to 110-1 from 14 overs. They both fell in the 15th to Finn Hill, Jefferson for 35 (36), Choules 44 (40).
Van Der Meulen batted with real intent and made finding the boundary look easy, striking four fours and a six on his way to 31 from 14 balls before being caught off Dube. Thors lost Porter for 4 and Heard for 9 and finished 166-6.
Van Der Meulen & E.Vukusic took the new ball with Exeter taking advantage of the field restrictions, adding 48 in the first five overs. One of Vukusic’s trademark inswingers clattered the leg stump of Dube for 29 and Exeter were 50-1 at the end of the powerplay.
Jopling & Tait took over and were consistent with their lengths. Tait had Hill well caught at deep mid-wicket by Porter for 13 to leave the hosts 78-1 at the halfway stage.
Sam Read took a liking to the bowling change of Stirling for Jopling, finding the boundary twice off his first over to leave the hosts needing 78 from 54.
Tait nicked off Abrahams for 36 & Stirling had Read caught by Jopling running around from mid on for 19. Spittles & Zach Vukusic continued to knock the ball around and left the visitors requiring 40 from 30.
Vukusic tried to clear Jefferson at mid-on and had appeared to until he put up a solitary hand to plucked the ball above his head; Tait finishing with impressive figures of 3-20.
Buckingham took 16 from Stirling’s last over to hand the balance over to the hosts needing 18 from 18. Van Der Meulen returned to bowl a tight 18th over, conceding just two.
Jopling bowled Buckingham for 20 (12) in the penultimate over and conceded just 4; Exeter now requiring 12 from 6.
Van Der Meulen bowled good lengths and had Spittles caught by Slaviero under a steepler at midwicket. Just four runs were conceded and Thors ran out winners by 7 runs.
Thorverton Cricket Club 