DEVON are hanging on grimly against Cheshire at Alderley Edge after refusing to buckle under pressure.

Going into the third and final day today Devon are 151 for five in their second innings, 20 runs short of making Cheshire bat again but still in the match.

When Devon were 98 for four in reply to Cheshire’s first innings total of 283 all out, the spectre of an innings defeat loomed large as they were still 72 behind.

But the batters gave little away in the final hour and a half – play was extended by 30 minutes at both ends of the day to make up time lost on Sunday – and earned a deserved pat on the back from team boss Keith Donohue.

“We are still in there fighting and for me that is the important thing about today: we showed some dog,” said Devon’s director of cricket.

“We had a great session before lunch when we took six wickets and played some good cricket afterwards although it was tougher taking wickets.

“The pitch had eased a bit by lunch and their lower order batsmen did well, using up the overs and giving us nothing.

“When we batted second time I was pleased to see us being a bit more game savvy than we have been.

“We frustrated their bowlers by using up the overs and when you are patient balls come along you can score off, which we did.”

Cheshire, 28 for none overnight, wobbled to 138 for six at lunch with Devon spinner Jamie Stephens taking four of the wickets to fall.

Devon had hoped to get among the wickets after the break, but Cheshire clearly weren’t on the same page of the script.

Danny Lamb (66) and Will Owen (60) added 40 to their stand after lunch, which stood at 81 when Owen was given out caught behind off Jack Popham.

Lamb wasn’t going anywhere and embarked on a stand of 91 with Jack Williams for the eighth wicket.

Matt Golding got the breakthrough Devon had waited for when Lamb drove him on the up to Popham at mid-off.

It was a tired shot by a player who had been out there for three minutes short of three hours and had faced 113 balls.

Golding wrapped up the tail pretty quickly, claiming Matt Tully and Danny Woods caught behind in successive overs to finish with figures of three for 57.

Stephens, the hero of the morning session, finished with four for 74.

Dan Wolf, bowled by Lamb for 10, was Devon’s first casualty, followed by Dan Pyle getting in a tangle against spinner Danny Woods and getting out caught off bat and thigh pad at leg-slip.

Josh Bess survived a confident appeal for caught behind from Woods then got out next ball, caught at mid-on.

Opener Max Curtis atoned for his first-day third-ball dismissal with a patient 50, which came off 93 balls and only contained 19 scoring shots. That’s a lot of dots.

Curtis went lbw to a full-length delivery from Jack Williams. The last man out before stumps was Matt Golding, lbw to partnership breaker Rob Jones.

Devon 113 (J J Bess 25, Z G G Bess 20, J W Y L Yau 21; D J Lamb 2-34, W T Owen 3-37, M Tully 4-34) & 151-5 (M H Curtis 56; D J Lamb 2-39), Cheshire 283 (D J Lamb 66, W T Owen 60, J J Williams 54, H F Dearden 34; J A Stephens 4-74, M C Golding 3-57).