Dropped catches costly for D40s
Cricket Shropshire’s Disability D40 side were left to rue dropped catches which cost them the chance of victory over Yorkshire at Norton-in-Hales.
On a sunny but cool and blustery day, the visitors won the toss and elected to bat first and by the halfway stage had amassed 152-3.
Coach Graham Furber said: “It’s fair to say at that stage we had been extremely lacklustre in the field and several important catches had been missed.
“A full and frank exchange of views, held equally between the coaches and the players, had the desired effect with our opponents then losing their last seven wickets for 60 runs in the next 10 overs.”
This was mainly thanks to a blistering second spell from Matty Bailey who finished with 5-40, ably supported by Cally Rigby with 2-41. In 29.2 overs, Yorkshire had been dismissed for 212.
Graham added: “A special mention for our spinner James Wojda whose figures of 2-49 would have been so much better if we had only held our catches off his bowling!”
In reply, Shropshire lost Tom Wallace to the pace of Cam Cooper, but a well-constructed partnership of 79 between skipper Adam Marshall (45) and James (33) kept Shropshire in contention.
However, their dismissals shortly after each other allowed Yorkshire to make in-roads into our middle order.
Matty Bailey contributed a fluent 24, followed by a late unbeaten eighth wicket partnership of 39 runs between wheelchair wicketkeeper Dave Ingram (16) and Danny Percy (12), which saw Shropshire on 158-7 at the end of their allocated 40 overs.
Graham said: “We have now lost two out of two games played but surprisingly have lost less wickets than our opponents on both occasions.
It’s always easy to make excuses but there is a real need for some improvement in the field because the way that our opponents lost their wickets after the drinks break allied to the fact that several of their batsmen were reprieved by our poor catching did suggest that the result might have been different.
“Our grateful thanks to our excellent umpires Pete Maltby and Wyn Williams and to all at Norton-in-Hales for their excellent hospitality.
“Thanks also to Alex Jervis and his team for always playing against us in a competitive manner but in the best spirit of the game.”
The D40s next game is against Wales at Shelton CC on Sunday 8th June (1pm).