Joe Leach available for Shrewsbury
Shrewsbury have been boosted by the news Worcestershire captain Joe Leach is available for tomorrow’s Premier One trip to Dorridge.
The club are waiting to hear whether he will be cleared to bowl by the Pears, but skipper Will Parton said if not he’ll play as a batsman only.
“Joe’s had a lot of cricket for Worcester seconds so I’m not sure if he’ll be able to bowl,” said Parton. “But he’s in as a batter at least.
“Henry Blofield is back at university so Pat Jacobs will come in for him from the seconds. Matt Swift is unavailable.”
And Parton knows it will be a tough test against the Birmingham-based side.
“They have had some good results,” added Parton. “They beat Berkswell in the Graham Williamson Trophy first game of the season – chasing 265 losing just two wickets. I think they are a strong side, especially on their early-season form.”
Both Shrewsbury and Dorridge go into the weekend on the back of games settled by the Duckworth-Lewis-Stern method – Dorridge winning at Shifnal while Shrewsbury fell just short in their revised run chase at home to defending Birmingham League champions Berkswell.
After the rain break, Berkswell’s 219-9 became 130 from 25 overs – with Parton saying they should have been chasing much less after a batsman was given not out despite being clean bowled.
“It was so windy we were playing without bails because the umpires couldn’t find the heavy bails,” said Parton.
“We had them 30-odd for four after 25 overs and had a very big decision go against us. The ball hit the top of off stump – but the umpire said he couldn’t tell if it had bowled him. It cost us at least 40 runs as the guy went on to make another 30.”
Shrewsbury fell just 10 runs short of the revised target, finishing on 119-7 with Leicestershire’s Ateeq Javid recording impressive figures of 4-13 from five overs.
“We were very capable of chasing that target,” added Parton. “It just didn’t go our way. Being just 10 runs short of arguably the best team in the league was a good effort. We know we are not far off.
“The DLS made it a good game and it was the right thing to go back out and try to chase it down.”
Shifnal have a double header against Kenilworth Wardens with a trip in the league tomorrow before a home game on Sunday in the Graham Williamson Trophy.
