Skelton and Hill guide county to Devon double

CHLOE Skelton and captain Alice Hill were in fine form with bat and ball, respectively, as Gloucestershire Women continued their fine start to the summer with two wins away to Devon in the ECB Women’s T20 County Championship.

Skelton totalled 83 runs across both outings at Sidmouth while Hill had figures of 4-23 from six overs in the double success as their side went top of the South West group.

Gloucestershire restricted Devon to 79-7 in the first game with Skelton’s opening spell of 2-16 being well supported by Hill (2-9 from two), Lily Day (0-13 from four) and Charlotte Phillips (1-15 from four).

Skelton then held the visitors’ reply together, opening the innings and standing firm with an unbeaten 48 from 50 (four fours) to see her side to a hardfought victory with three balls to spare.

In the second head to head, Devon reached 85-5 as Alice (2-14 from four), Mollie Robbins (1-10 from four) and Lily (0-14 from three) put the squeeze on.

Skelton was then once again in fine touch with the bat, top scoring on 35 with Naomi Forecast (19 not) and Hill (18) chipping away at the target before victory was secured with ten balls to spare.

Hill said: “It was great to get two wins over a strong Devon side. Every member of the team played an important part in both games, backed up by some great individual performances.”

Head coach Jamie Diamond was delighted with the two results. He said: “I’m incredibly proud of all the team.

“These are big results for us against a strong Devon side which shows how far we have come as a unit in the last few years.

“The bowling and fielding standards during the game were exceptional, more work has to be done on the batting front but we keep pushing onwards and upwards. It’s great to be top of the table!”

Assistant coach Matt Hunkin added: “Much credit goes to the bowling unit who set up both wins by restricting Devon to 79 and 85 across the two games. We still had to work hard for the runs but four an over is hard to defend.”

Gloucestershire are in action on Sunday with a double header against Dorset at Cheltenham College (11am and 3pm).