HATHERLEIGH captain Rob Cockwill came away from his side’s 134-run defeat by Premier leaders Exmouth surprisingly happy for a man whose team is hovering just above the relegation places.

Exmouth, who were 200-2 after 21 overs, could not maintain the pace they had been setting and were bowled out six overs early for 307.

Although Hatherleigh were dismissed for 173 in reply, Cockwill had a pragmatic view of the afternoon’s events.

“We had a clear objective going into the game,” said Cockwill. “Realistically, we knew a win was going to be a challenge, so we just tried to get as many points as possible.

“We did incredibly well to restrict them to just over 300. At one point I thought we would be chasing 400 plus!

“A lot of credit must go the Exmouth batters, the power and shot execution was pretty impressive to watch.

“All our bowlers deserve a huge amount of praise as they stuck to our plans in testing conditions, Bowling Exmouth out in under 50 overs was a great effort.

“We were pretty happy to come away with the amount of points (eight) we achieved.”

Openers Louis Morison (57) and Ed Butler (95) gave Exmouth a ‘Le Mans-style’ start worth 82.

A double strike by Ruben Forrester (2-65) – Morison then Devon captain James Horler – slowed things briefly before Butler and Cam Kidd (62) raised the tempo again.

The comeback was far more restrained after Presswell struck twice in an over to dispatch Kidd and Dan Pyle.

Fin Marks (22) and Pete Turnbull (31) were positively pedestrian compared to Morison (26 balls), Butler (77) and Kidd (41) as Exmouth jogged along. Paul Heard (3-41) helped keep the runs down.

Kidd, a recent addition to Devon’s white-ball squad, claimed three wickets and a run-out as Hatherleigh stuttered to 51 for five in reply. Jasper Presswell (32) and twin Charlie (29) applied themselves to stave off total collapse.