D40s claim another victory
Shropshire’s D40 squad edged another thriller against the newly-formed Warwickshire side to make it two wins from two in their ECB campaign.
Availability problems still affected the side as they travelled to Moseley CC, but they welcomed back Charlie Vickers after a season away and youngster Evan Pickford made his debut. Before the game Evan received his county cap from skipper Shaun.
Shaun won the toss and decided to bat first and openers Kev Baker (54) and Adam Marshall (39) gave Shropshire a great start by adding 71 before Adam was dismissed.
Kev then continued his run of finding interesting ways of getting out this season. In the first game he was bowled by a ‘pea roller’, and in this one unluckily run out at the non-striker’s end when the bowler missed a sharp return catch but deflected the ball onto the stumps with Kev out of his ground.
Rhys Williams (52 not out) completed an excellent first half century for Shropshire and shared partnerships of 30 with Danny Percy (14) and then 59 with Cally Rigby (24 not out) to take his side to 209-4 at the end of their allotted 40 overs.
In reply Warwickshire, for a side dismissed for 86 in their first game, batted with great spirit and skill, led by an excellent innings of 65 from opener Haroon Irshad and then later by Kearan Gibbs (25) and Aqeel Hudda (31), the latter two old and well-respected adversaries from S9s games.
Coach Graham Furber said: “At times we looked flat in the field, but superbly skippered under pressure yet again by Shaun, we kept chipping away at our opponents, taking quick wickets in clusters of 2-3 at a time.
“A second sharp run out by Cally at the end completed our opponent’s innings in 38.1 overs and they were dismissed for 193, leaving us winners in a second nail-biting finish by 16 runs.”
Leading wicket takers were Adam (3-33) and Shaun (2-25), but Cally, Charlie and Tom Wallace all contributed with one wicket each.
Graham added: “Another close victory but a win nonetheless, and next we entertain a rejuvenated Cheshire at Shelton CC, who have also won two out of two but by big margins.
“We all send our heartiest congratulations to Oli Harrison who made his debut for the England & Wales Transplant team, and from all accounts did himself proud. Well done Oli!”
The game against Cheshire is this Sunday, June 2.
The S9s game against Warwickshire, due to be played on Sunday, was abandoned due to the overnight rain and thunderstorms.
