DEVON breezed through to the last eight of the Unicorns Trophy after trouncing Cornwall by 93 runs to clinch second place in their group.
Berkshire, as expected defeated Dorset to claim top spot and home advantage in the quarter-finals.
Devon, as runners-up, face the long traipse to Gratham to play Lincolnshire, who crushed Northumberland by 147 runs to win their group ahead of Cambridgeshire.
Devon seemed in the driving seat at Werrington after totting up 302 for nine – Rob Woodman and Alex Barrow both getting out in the 90s.
Cornwall were well placed at 105 for three in the 22nd over with Tom Rowe going well having just reached a run-a-ball half century.
The game was won and lost in the four overs it took Devon to reduce Cornwall to 134 for seven.
Cornwall’s problems started when Rowe was bowled by Matt Golding for 53. It looked like a long-hop that pitched and rolled, which was cruel on Rowe who had taken the game to Devon with eight fours and two huge sixes.
Keith Donohue, Devon’s director of cricket, said setting a 300-plus total gave Devon a platform to win the game.
“Rob Woodman (91) and Liam Lewis (65) gave us a great start of 130 for the first wicket, Rob the more aggressive and Liam more restrained than we are used to seeing, apart from some huge blows into the next field,” said Donohue.
“When you are going along at six an over from the start, it puts pressure on the other side to contain you which Cornwall found hard to deal with.
“Alex Barrow batted fantastically for his 91, putting pressure on Cornwall by finding gaps all the time in the field. He only faced 75 balls, which speaks for itself.”
Barrow and Ben Green (27) got Devon up to 287 for three with three overs to go with a stand of 95 scored in ten and half overs.
There was some punishment for the Cornish bowlers with Matt Robins going for 17 in one over and seamer James Turpin 16 in another.
It took a breathtaking diving catch at point by Alex Hodgson off Turpin to dismiss Barrow, who had a maiden Devon ton in his sights.
The former Somerset batsman hit the ball hard from the start. One ball with some width on it was square cut for six over cover-point – not a shot you see that often in any level of cricket.
Cornwall’s bowlers got some reward in the last three overs, taking seven wickets for 15 runs. Andrew Libby (3-55) picked up three for not very many when the crash was on, compensation for some rough treatment earlier.
From the Devon camp it seemed the lower order batters were a bit casual in their shot selection, which wasn’t a view shared from the Cornish compound.
“Our bowlers, particularly Lewis Goldsworthy, did well to stop Devon getting 340-350 in the end,” said director of cricket Godfrey Furse.
“Chasing 303 to win was enough, but having scored 340-odd against Oxfordshire on the same ground last year I thought we were still in the game.
“Tom Rowe was going along nicely, but we could have done with another 10-15 overs from him. That would have made it interesting.”
Devon 302-9 (R J Woodman 91, L J Lewis 65, A W R Barrow 91, B G F Green 27; J R Turpin 3-74, A C Libby 3-55), Cornwall 209 (T C Rowe 53, M C Golding 4-27, J A Stephens 2-32, H M Whitlock 2-16). Devon (2pts) bt Cornwall (0) by 93 runs.
