Ralph tells team they must win the lot

Monday 4th May 2009, 11:40AM BST.

Cricket Shropshire cricket captain James Ralph today admitted his side can’t afford another slip in the Minor Counties Trophy, writes JAMES GARRISON.

Town lost their opening game in the round-robin group stages of the one-day competition, going down by 43 runs to Bedfordshire at Shrewsbury yesterday.

And Ralph admitted his side have now put themselves under pressure to win their remaining three games, starting at Cumberland next week, to have a chance of finishing the top two to reach the quarter-finals.

“We have put ourselves under more pressure and we can’t afford to lose one,” said Ralph.

Bedfordshire scored 255-7 but Shropshire hopes were ended after they lost seven wickets for 52 runs midway through their reply.

“I thought we bowled quite well in parts, although we could maybe have bowled them out for 210,” he added.

“We made a fairly good start with the bat but saying that, when they had the field in for the first 15 overs we probably didn’t make as much of that as we should have done.

“We lost wickets in the middle of our innings quite cheaply and they were a bit ‘school cricket’ dismissals.”

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