There were 2 changes to the 1st XI who were trying to make it 3 wins from 3 at Plympton. Team: D. Robbins, N.Chaplin, A.Kingdon, S.Yelverton, H.Choules+, G.Daldorph, B.Heard, A.Khogiani, B.Slaviero, A.Jopling, J.Choules*.
With some rain in the air, the hosts elected to bowl after winning the toss. Looking to repeat his first ball last week, Robbins attempted to pull a short ball but was caught at square leg. Kingdon joined Chaplin who was off the mark with a boundary through third man and the pair did well to negotiate the early exchanges until the rain got heavier after 7 overs with the score 25-1. The umpires took the teams off briefly until a break in the rain; only 2 overs aside were lost making it a 48 over affair.
Kingdon and Chaplin continued where they left off, sensibly playing the opening bowlers and running well. Nick found the boundary 3 times in the 10th over to bring the total to 39-1 from the powerplay. Kingdon got in on the act after the powerplay picking up 3 boundaries himself. Another shorter ball was the undoing of Chaplin as he played on for a well made 33. Yelverton came and went shortly after when he also picked out a fielder from a short ball. Thros 76-3 at the 17 over drinks break.
Choules joined Kingdon for another rebuild and the left handers calmed things down again until the latter fell for 27. 111-4 after 25.
When Choules was given LBW for 20 with 20 overs to go and Daldorph chipped one to mid off a couple of balls later, Thors were in trouble at 120-6. Things went from bad to worse as Khogiani couldn’t trouble the scorers on debut but Heard and Slaviero were studious in their response. The pair rotated the strike well but took few risks as they kept things ticking along. Slavs struck boundaries when the field came up as the pair added 50 in 10 overs to put Thors back on track towards a respectable total.
After Slaviero went for a helpful 22, Jopling couldn’t add any more before being bowled, so the skipper joined Heard for the final wicket. They rotated without risk until 3 overs to go when the umpires got together to confirm Plympton were behind the over rate. In years gone by this would have meant 18 penalty runs but a new ruling for 2025 meant that Plympton could have 1 fewer fielder outside the 30 yard circle instead – this doing little to alter Thor’s approach, particularly that of the skipper. However, he and Heard did take the score into the 180s before Bobby was caught for 19 with 1 over left.
After tea, Slaviero bowled into the wind for a change as Daldorph had the breeze and wedding bells from the neighbouring church behind him. This did nothing to put Slaviero off his usual relentless areas and despite Torley squeezing a few boundaries off of Daldorph, George had his man LBW in the 6th. Plympton skipper Kandampully joined county regular Hamilton and started aggressively. However, he was undone when Slaviero got one to move off the seam for a deserved wicket. Plympton 33-2 from 10.
Hamilton took 6 off Robbins’ first ball as he replaced Slaviero but Robbins had the key wicket in his second over when Hamilton fell LBW. It was 2 from 2 when he bowled Ford first ball to give the visitors a sniff at 54-4.
Amongst the drama, Yelverton was toiling at the wedding-bell-end and, despite a few early looseners, kept things tight. Overseas star Motswiri looked confident from the outset for the hosts and his counter attacking put the pressure back on Thors. He and Barker gave no real chances as Thors turned to spin for a breakthrough to no avail. When Plympton required less than 3 figures, Motswiri went up another gear and passed his half century. By the time Robbins removed him via a well judged catch from Jopling for a run a ball 76, Plympton only required 16 more.
Yelverton came agonisingly close to giving Thors another bowling bonus point when he repeatedly beat the outside edge but Plympton got over the line with no further damage and 10 overs left. Thors had to settle for 5 points.
We only slip down one place in the table to 4th but the ladder remains exceptionally tight throughout with a tough run of fixtures to come – starting with a derby-date with Cullompton at Station Ground next week.
Thorverton Cricket Club 