Broseley edged out in Furrows League Stocking thriller
There were some thrilling finishes in the Furrows East Shropshire Mid-Week League in round two – with Wheaton Aston claiming victory at Broseley by just one run at The Stocking.
Batting first in the Division Two clash, Wheaton Aston were indebted to an eighth wicket partnership between Edward Hargreaves (32 not out) and Greg Lawley (16 not out) to see them to 109-7 from their 20 overs.
Bowling honours went to Chris Lloyd who took 3-10 from his four overs with Levi Humphreyson chipping in with 2-22.
Thomas Holcroft held the Broseley reply together with 52 in a tense run chase but he had little support as the Wheaton Aston attack chipped away with Joe Marson claiming 3-6 from his four overs.
With the hosts on the brink of claiming the win, Hargreaves took the final over and claimed two wickets in two balls including that of Holcroft caught and bowled to seal victory for the visitors.
There was also a close contest at Lilleshall as they edged to victory over Albrighton with four balls to spare.
Batting first, Albrighton skipper Sam Wood hit 42, Hasibullah Shah Gasi retired after reaching his half century and Jack Wood 21 as they finished their innings on 153-4.
In the reply, Adam Binfield made 34, Chris Birkett 32 and Conor Steele a crucial 27 off 17 balls before he was dismissed trying to hit the winning runs off the first ball of the final over.
But new batter Hafeez Rehman hit the next ball for four to claim the win.
In the other game in the division, Codsall maintained their unbeaten start to the season when they beat visitors Newport by seven wickets.
Batting first, Newport made 138-4 with Kyle Hodson unbeaten on 49 and Ryan Jones hitting 23.
Karandeep Singh Aulakh got the Codsall reply off to a fast start with 22 off ten balls, Monti Kunner made 21 and Liam Raby then steered his side to victory with an unbeaten 32 as they claimed the win in the 18th over.
In Division One, Forton claimed their first win of the season with victory over visitors Harpers with an over to spare.
Harpers finished on149-4 with Vivian John and Rama Chaitanya Bammidi both hitting unbeaten half centuries before retiring.
Skipper Joe Roberts hit 39 at the top of the order in the reply for Forton and Ben Yates-Ward chipped in with 35.
But with the game in the balance, it was the fifth wicket partnership between Sam Gill (18 off nine balls) and Chris Hughes (24 off nine balls) which steered the hosts to victory.
Yaswanth Avula claimed 3-21 for Harpers.
Last year’s champions St Georges claimed a comfortable first win of the season when they hosted Priorslee.
The visitors were bowled out for 94 with Raja Janga claiming 3-14, Bobby Gill 2-25 and Jagdeep Singh 3-8. Abhay Srivastava and Siju Thulaskdharan both made 22.
In the reply Ibrar Ahmed hit 22 and Ashish Ashish 24 as the Dragons knocked off the winning runs for the loss of four wickets.
Church Eaton beat visitors Allscott Heath in the other game in the division.
Batting first, Luke Thornton hit 50 off 27 balls for Allscott and Callum Edwards chipped in with 22 as they made 123-7 from their 20 overs.
In the reply, Jason Summers took 2-17 and Isaac Harper 2-20, but Douglas Hughes’ unbeaten 50 ensured the hosts claimed the victory for the loss of five wickets.
