Captain cool as Shropshire shine with the bat
Shropshire captain Richard Oliver insists the team will return to action in confident mood for the final day of their Minor Counties Championship clash at Wiltshire.
The county side have put themselves into a strong position after an impressive display with the ball in Wiltshire's second innings.
Play will resume today with the hosts on 156-8, 233 runs ahead, but Oliver said his side will be confident of victory if they can restrict that gap to anything less than 300.
Oliver said: "It is still in the balance and there is a lot of cricket still to play, but if it stays dry then we will certainly fancy ourselves if we can restrict them to less than 300.
"Less than 250 would be great. It's all to play for, but we are pretty happy after the second day."
Shropshire started the day needing a big response after Wiltshire had made 434 in their first innings, thanks in no small part to Michael Coles' unbeaten 227.
Shropshire responded well by making 357 with Shrewsbury's Steve Leach reaching 91 and Wellington's Joe Clarke making 61.
Oliver had contributed 56 at the top of the order, while Bridgnorth's James Ralph added 30.
But Wiltshire still had a 77-run lead going into their second, leaving Shropshire needing a strong performance with the ball to help keep Wiltshire's score within their reach.
Shrewsbury's Joe Leach took 3-60 while Bilal Shafayat and Whitchurch's Dan Bowen took two wickets each for the visitors.
Oliver said: "We regrouped after their first innings. We have done well and 357 was about par.
"We would have liked more runs but, at 357, we were back in the game and then we have clawed it back further with the ball."
