DEVON were unable to capitalise on their overnight advantage on day two of the game against Berkshire at Falkland CC on the outskirts of Newbury.
When rain forced the players off shortly before tea, Devon were 45 for one in the second innings and 49 runs ahead overall, probably not the position they had hoped to be in at the start of the day.
Berkshire, aiming for a seventh successive National Counties title, were in all sorts of trouble at the end of day one.
Devon had made 272 all out in the 80th of the 90 overs they could have batted for – Fin Hill hitting 90 on his Championship debut – and at close of play had reduced Berkshire to 85 for five in reply.
And when Andy Rishton was next out before lunch – stumped by a distance dancing down the track to Max Shepherd – Berkshire were 112 for six.
Taking the last four wickets proved a tough task for Devon as Berkshire’s lower order batsmen had virtually wiped out the first-innings deficit by they time they were all out.
Skipper Dan Lincoln, 28 not out overnight, made a studious 41 at one end while Rhodri Lewis started advancing towards a half-century at the other.
When Lewis was ninth out on 192, last man Luke Beaven went out to join Toby Greatwood with the deficit stuck on 80.
Greatwood went on to make 52 off 97 balls – not what you would normally expect from a number-ten batsman – and Beaven reached 38 not out in Berkshire’s final total of 269 all out.
Beaven and Greatwood’s stand of 77 for the last wicket went straight in at number two in the all-time list of tenth-wicket stands against Devon since three-day cricket was introduced in 2001. Only Shropshire pair Graham Wagg and Ben Parker (86 at Sidmouth in 2021) hung around longer.
Opener Adrian Smalll was the man out when Devon batted again: caught off the leading edge trying to flick a delivery from Greatwood off his hip.
Dave Tall, the team manager, said although it was disappointing Berkshire fought back so strongly there was little he could fault in Devon’s performance.
“We bowled well and although our fielding was not great we did not drop any catches,” said Tall.
“Other than one strong shout for caught behind, and another for an lbw, there were not a huge number of chances either.
“When we got Rishton early I thought that was helpful, but the pitch got flatter and flatter as the day went on with little in it for the bowlers.
“And if you tried being gung-ho when bowling, the batsmen were able to score quite freely.”
With one eye on the future Tall said there are areas where Devon have to tighten-up thieir game.
“When the time comes to sum-up this game it will be the runs we did not score and gave away in the field that will be significant,” said Tall.
“We gave away 20-30 in missed singles on day one, and a good 20 in the field today, which adds up to 40 or more. I doubt it will matter in this game as getting a result is going to be hard, especially having lost a session to the weather.
“But there will be games in future where lapses like that could well cost us.”
Devon 272 (F J Hill 90, J S Moore 45, B A Beaumont 42; J M Lincoln 3-33) & 45-1 (J D Horler 29no), Berkshire 269 (D J Lincoln 41, R J Lewis 53, T L Greatwood 52, L E Beaven 38no; J A Stephens 3-59, K B Szymanski 2-52, M B Shepherd 2-54).
