Devon ease past Cheshire

Devon booked thier semi-final berth with victory over much fancied Cheshire

Cheshire crashed to a heavy defeat at the hands of Devon in the quarter-finals of the MCCA Knockout Trophy on Sunday.

Last year's Lords' finalists struggled for runs and were convincingly beaten by six wickets at Chester Boughton Hall Cricket Club.

The hosts won the toss and batted first, but despite runs from Nathan Dumelow (47) and Danny Leech (41), posted just 178 in their allotted 50 overs.

In reply Devon skipper Robert Dawson (57) and Arul Suppiah (52) scored the bulk of the runs as the visitors booked their place in this year's semi-finals.

Devon, who last won the Knockout Trophy back in 1998, will now play either Norfolk or Lincolnshire in the next stage while this year's other semi-final will be contested between Berkshire and Oxfordshire.

"We didn't perform at all," reflected Cheshire skipper Andy Hall. "It's very disappointing because we did so well to get to Lords last season, we'd have loved to have been their again.

"But we didn't score enough runs, that wasn't a big enough total to defend. Hopefully we can put this loss behind us and move on, we've got to concentrate on trying to defend our Championship title."

Cheshire struggled out of the blocks and limped along after a poor start to 89 for five.

However a spirited sixth-wicket partnership of 62 between Dumelow and Jason Whittaker (25) gave the hosts hope but wickets continued to tumble and Hall's team were bowled out off the last ball of their allotted overs.

Devon then reached their target for victory with 15 overs to spare to deservedly progress and leave themselves within one win of reaching Lord's.

"It wasn't a good performance from us, but we've got now hope we pick ourselves up and try and continue in the rich vein of form we started the Championship," said Cheshire team manager Sandy Scrimgeour.