HAVING completed a very worthwhile pre-season campaign with some outdoor practice at Plympton CC followed by warm up fixtures with Plympton CC, Exeter University and finally Somerset, Devon Women entertained Oxfordshire at the picturesque Mount Kelly College in their opening ECB T20 fixtures.
A huge thank you must first go to Mount Kelly, in particular Director of Sport, Bobby Skelton and his staff along with Head of Cricket, James Carr in agreeing to host the fixture at such short notice given the unfortunate loss of Braunton CC with ground issues.
Having lost the toss Devon were asked to bat first in the opening game. Emma Corney with 42 from 37 balls and Cait O'Keefe, 36 from 29, including a towering six over long on were the main protagonists with a useful flurry at the end from Georgia Read and Steph Hutchins enabling Devon to post 140-5 from their 20 overs.
STUMBLED
Milly Squire struck early in the reply to remove opener Emilia Barttram without scoring and although a small recovery took place, two wickets from O'Keefe saw the visitors slip to 32-3 and from there they never really recovered as they stumbled to 63-9.
Sophie Florides was the pick of the Devon bowling with 3-7, supported well by Cait O'Keefe 2-7 and off-spinner Charlie Phillips 2-15. Devon ran out victors by 77 runs.
The second game followed a similar pattern as Devon this time won the toss and elected to bat. Emma Corney was once again in the runs with a sparkling 44 from 37 balls before falling short of her half century for the second time in the day.
Exeter University student Izzy Bunn however made the Oxfordshire bowling toil as she plundered 68 from 57 balls including ten boundaries, adding 94 for the first wicket with Corney.
Useful contributions from Ellie Bishop (15) and an unbeaten 14 from Milly Squire saw Devon post an imposing 167-5.
COMFORTABLE
The Oxfordshire reply followed a similar pattern as the first game with wickets falling at regular intervals. Steph Hutchins led the wicket taking honours this time with 3-7, supported well by Emma Corney 2-15 and Katie Harman 2-16 as Devon were comfortable winners this time by 87 runs.
Including pre-season Emma Corney (191), Cait O'Keefe (125) and Georgia Read (116) have passed 100 runs for the season. Wickets-wise Hutchins leads the way with 8, followed by Milly Squire and Katie Harman with five each.
Links to scorecards are here: Devon Cricket Board (play-cricket.com) | Devon Cricket Board (play-cricket.com)
Devon travel next to Corsham on Monday May 3rd for the next round of games against Wiltshire and welcome back Ali Kelly back to the side and bring youngster Evie Privett into the side.
Team to play: Steph Hutchins (c), Georgia Read (w/k), Ali Kelly, Emma Corney, Cait O'Keefe, Milly Squire, Charlie Phillips, Katie Donovan, Sophie Florides, Ellie Bishop, Ruby Davis, Evie Privett.
