With the weather forecast much changed from last week’s run-fest at Station Ground, the visit of Tavistock was to pose a new set of challenges for the unbeaten 1st XI.
There were 2 changes to the side which was – A.Pitt, D.Robbins, B.Coe, B.Coetzee, H.Choules+, A.Chilcott, D.Baldock, G.Daldorph, B.Slaviero, A.Jopling, J.Choules*.
Visiting captain Sean Cleave won the toss and as is common practice with rain forecasted, elected to bowl. Centurions Pitt & Robbins opened up with the latter picking up where he left off last week with some punishing strikes to the boundary from the get go.
Anything short of a length offered by the opening bowlers raced to the boundary until veteran keeper Dave Manning took a sublime catch when Robbins inside edged one in the 4th over. The score had already raced to 26-1 and there was time for incoming Ben Coe to flick 4 more before the first rain delay of the afternoon ensued.
Only a couple of overs were lost before Pitt & Coe were back it it, the pair turning the strike over nicely against the opening bowlers as the first batting point came up.
Shortly after, Barriball got one to nip back to remove Coe for 15 and the the change pairing of skipper Cleave and Sri Lankan import Sandaruwan were introduced for the Moorlanders. Pitt struck a maximum as the 100 approached and Brendan played himself in, but the spinners had begun to stem the run flow.
Pitt eventually went for 28 when he skied one off of Sandaruwan with the total reaching 92-3.
The following period was a good one for the visitors as the Thors middle order found it difficult to get going with the pace off. Choules came and went for 8 and just when he was looking comfortable, Coetzee was also gone for 25.
Chilcott and Baldock attempted to resist in difficult conditions but a bizarre Baldock dismissal followed by the end of Chilly left Thors in some trouble at 113-5.
With the most damaging Tavi bowlers coming to the end of their allocated overs, Daldorph and Slaviero looked increasingly comfortable in the middle. The pair turned the strike over positively and Slaviero (18*) in particular began to find the boundary regularly.
However as Thors sought to increase the rate in the final overs, the rain came back and we were left stranded on 156-7.
An early tea was taken and the game was revised to a 39 over affair – DLS setting a target of 171 to win for Tavistock.
After a plentiful Choules/Bastin tea, Slaviero and Daldorph got on with the defence from their usual ends. As we have become used to, the pair looked threatening from the off with Daldorph cleaning up opener Gray for 0. After beating his outside edge on numerous occasions, Slaviero eventually had other opener Scott-Munden caught behind with help from a sharp grab from Choules.
When the rain came once more, Thors were in the ascendancy with Tavi 16-2. When play resumed, it was now a 32 over game with Tavistock requiring 140 more – a total of 156 to win.
Slaviero struck the very first ball after the rain delay, removing Sandaruwan LBW for 0 much to the delight of his teammates. It was time for a change of bowling as Robbins and Jopling were introduced who kept the visitors below the required rate. With the score on 30, Thorvy had a 4th wicket when Robbins bowled Barriball for 16.
Thors smelt blood but still needed wickets as Tavistock now had dangermen Davies and Manning at the crease. The pair began to force the issue and increased the scoring rate against the slower bowling. Daldorph was introduced for his final 2 overs with the aim of removing one of the more threatening batters and whilst he kept things extremely tight, the visitors weathered the storm.
The pair continued to score relatively quickly at the other end as the skipper tried to settle. With the score into the 80s, Thors were relived to remove Manning as he hit one down the throat of Coetzee in front of the rained off 2s and 3s for a well made 28.
Davies would’ve known he had to do the bulk of the scoring from here – and looked more than capable, piling more pressure onto the Thors bowling as the score passed 100.
Slaviero was introduced from the Pavilion End in front of the tense home support and stemmed the runflow as expected. He removed Geering for 17 in the process but with the score at 122-6 with four overs to go, things remained tense around Station Ground.
Slaviero finished his allotted overs economically and Pitt was proving difficult to get away at the River End as the score went into the 140s with 2 to go.
The skipper took the final over from the Pavilion End and removed Davies (58) 3rd ball when he picked out Robbins at deep mid wicket.
Pitt was left to defend 10 from the final over. It was the perfect start when Daymond was caught at point by Coe followed by a first baller for Fraser when keeper Choules sprinted towards square leg for the catch.
The Tavi number 11 gave Thors a brief scare when he hit the penultimate ball of the game for 6 but Pitt held his nerve for the final ball as Thors won a thriller by 3 runs.
With only one other game in the division reaching a conclusion, Thorverton rise to the top of the early A Division table.
Thanks to Bob Rice for his work in the scorebox and our ground team for getting the game on in difficult conditions.
Next week the unbeaten 1s visit promotion hopefuls Torquay.
Thorverton Cricket Club 