Shropshire took on Cheshire in their final North & Midlands Pursuit D40 group game at Norton-In-Hales CC on Sunday.
Cheshire won the toss and elected to bat. Matthew Bailey made an early breakthrough when he bowled Ben Glynn to leave Cheshire 13/1 in the 3rd over. Mathachan Abraham and Stephen Redfern added 45 for the 2nd wicket before Adam Marshall had Redfern caught by Ewan Woodhouse for 18 to leave the visitors 58/2 in the 9th over.
A good period then followed for Shropshire; they picked up 4 wickets for just 13 runs in 26 balls. Woodhouse bowled Alex Marsden before Marshall claimed his second wicket when he took a return catch to dismiss Alfie Williams. Marshall’s third wicket came two overs later when he bowled Sean Stevenson. Callum Warren-Moore quickly followed when he was bowled by Marshall in the 15th over as the visitors slumped to 71/6.
Having watched all the carnage unfold from the other end, Abraham set about rebuilding the visitors’ innings. He reached his 50 from 72 balls with seven fours. He added 43 with Will Potts for the 7th wicket before his fine innings was ended when Rab Cooper bowled him for 51 in the 26th over to leave the visitors 114/7. Cooper picked up his second wicket in the over when he bowled J Hutt with the final ball.
Oliver Harrison returned to mop up the tail. He bowled Euan Walton before removing Matthew Othick in the same fashion as Cheshire were bowled out for 154 in the 31st over. Potts finished unbeaten on 20 with two fours as he ran out of partners at the end of the innings. It had been a great effort from the Shropshire bowlers, and they kept the pressure up all the way through the innings. Marshall was the pick of those bowlers and finished with impressive figures of 4/32. He got fine support from Cooper (2/16) and Harrison (2/25) as they put themselves in a good position to record their second victory of the season.
Marshall began the chase in typically aggressive fashion. Shropshire raced to 50 in just the 6th over before Marshall brought up his 50 from just 24 balls with eleven boundaries as the Cheshire bowlers had no answers to his early boundary blitz. Shropshire raced to 100 in just the 11th over as the boundary-hitting continued. Damon Morris was playing the anchor role, and he was happy to support Marshall.
The dominant Marshall retired when he reached 78* from just 38 balls. He’d struck 14 fours and put his side on the brink of victory. Evan Pickford replaced Marshall, but he was returning to the pavilion shortly afterwards when he was bowled by Redfern. Redfern claimed a second wicket two overs later when he trapped Woodhouse LBW. Morris and Cooper then added an unbroken 33 to take Shropshire to a dominant 8-wicket victory with more than 18 overs to spare.
Morris finished unbeaten on 22 from 59 balls with two fours. Cooper was more aggressive for his 22*. He struck five boundaries and only faced 18 balls to get the job done. Redfern finished with 2/4 from 3 overs as he was the only Cheshire bowler to make an impact on the Shropshire innings.
Shropshire’s second victory of the season completes their group campaign. They finished a respectable 4th in the 5-team group as they have improved throughout the summer, and they can be very proud of their efforts.
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