After crashing out in the first round at Exmouth last year, it was another away tie for Thors in the Devon T20 Cup.
Team: A.Kingdon, N.Chaplin, S.Yelverton, G.Daldorph, H.Choules+, F.Fenner, S.Hardwicke, B.Slaviero, S.Tait, A.Jopling, J.Choules.
The skipper won the toss and elected to field on the notoriously high scoring ground. The dangerous Tom Gooding had some early joy with the opening fielding restrictions before Slaviero snaffled fellow Aussie Cucontis down the leg side. Next over, George dislodged the dangerman’s middle stump to allow Thors to stem the flow. Kilmington 25-2 from 4.
There were a couple more wickets in the opening powerplay when Slaviero caught and bowled Cann and Daldorph removed Trott. The end of the powerplay brought Choules and Yelverton into the attack, generally keeping things tight. The skipper produced a maiden in his second over which included Seward being put down. By halfway Kilmington had stumbled to 42-4.
Wickets continued to dry up with two more chances going down off the bowling of Choules but Yelverton eventually had a deserved wicket in the 14th when he cleaned up Srikantaprasad. Skipper Reed joined Seward and the pair began to run well but with limited boundaries. Jopling broke a bail removing Reed and was on a hat trick when another Reed came and went. Kilmington 77-7 with 3 left.
A tight over from Hardwicke allowed Jopling and Slaviero to close out. Burrough had some joy when he struck a maximum in the last over but Slaviero made sure to have the last laugh on the final ball.
Kilmington 99-8, Seward 36 not out.
Kilmington looked keen to repay some of Thorverton’s favours when Chaplin was dropped early on while Kingdon got off the mark with a boundary, showcasing some classy drives from the outset. Chaplin was clearly in a rush and helped himself to 12 runs off of a Cuconits over before being caught off of Reed. Yelverton came and went after being given caught behind as the total reached 20-2 from 4.
Things escalated even more rapidly when Daldorph entered the fray and marched down the pitch first ball, ultimately taking 16 off of his first 6 balls faced. Not to be outdone, Kingdon took 16 off of the next over as we raced to 52-2 from 6. Cann was next to feel the wrath of Daldorph before Aitken removed Kingdon for a run a ball 25 and subsequently George for 42 from just 23 balls. At 93-4 at halfway, the damage was done.
Choules and Fenner made no mistake in finishing the job off, capped by a boundary for the latter.
Scorecard
Thors advance to the Quarter Finals and await the winner of Sidmouth and Cullompton who play on Wednesday.
Thorverton Cricket Club 