EAST TWO

By CONRAD SUTCLIFFE

EXETER’S II’s winning sequence under new skipper Graham White continued when they overturned Sandford II by 11 runs in a low-scoring affair at Creedy Park.

White must have feared the worst at the break as his side had been bowled out for 138 with exactly seven of their 40 overs un-bowled.

Mark Gribble top scored with 23, but next best after 21 extras was the 19 scored by Lucas Soeller, one of five scores in the mid-late teens that were to prove crucial in a low-scoring game. 

Every one of Sandford’s six bowlers took at least one wicket. Neil Maud, Greg Lewis and Ben Clement all went one better.

Sandford found runs even harder to come by as they were bowled out for 127.

Sandford were 71 for five at one stage with skipper Shaun Hawkins already long gone for 28.

Clement (30) got the score up to 96 for six before he became one of four victims for Mark Gribble (4-7).

Naj Choudhary (4-34) had already taken three of his wickets before Clement left the scene and working with Gribble saw off the rest in a final tally of 127 all out.

Said White: “The wicket was taking a lot of spin so we just alternated our three spinners.”

CLYST St George got off the mark and got off the bottom of East Two at the same time when they beat visiting Exmouth 2nd XI by 73 runs.

St George were 52 for four after running into trouble against Greg Marks (3-25) and did not look in much better shape at 83 for five with Harry O’Dwyer (21) just out.

Skipper Harry Attwater (44) and Inder Singh (33) put on 64 for the sixth wicket and bits and pieces from Oli Chaterjee (20) helped scrape up a total of 197 all out. 

Exmouth got to 78 for one in reply courtesy of Richard Baggs (42) and Luke Davies (29), at which point the chase veered off course, largely due to a telling spell of leg-spin from Dan Kendall (2-23).

Four wickets went for 14 runs and once Sean Day was caught and bowled by Singh the bottom half folded.

Singh took four wickets for six runs in 20 balls as Exmouth dipped to 124 all out.

Ethan Brenton and Josh Austin were the last two out in successive balls, which means Singh will have an unusual hat-trick in his sights when he comes on to bowl against Sandford this Saturday.

Winning skipper Attwater said taking the pace off the ball was probably the difference between winning and losing.

“I felt we were short on runs so needed a good performance in the field,” said Attwater.

“After a fast Exmouth start slower bowling spurred on by Dan Kendall, helped us control the game, backed up by a solid display in the field.”

 

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