County are still in with a shout, says Ralph

Wednesday 29th July 2009, 11:06AM BST.

Captain James Ralph believes Shropshire’s cricketers have kept alive their chances of Minor Counties Championship glory with a draw at Berkshire, writes JAMES GARRISON.

Shropshire gained eight points from their three day encounter at Finchampstead after ending on 200-7 in pursuit of 325 off 60 overs.

And, despite labelling the match a must-win encounter before the start, Ralph believes results elsewhere have kept his side in contention for the title.

Shropshire have slipped down one place to fifth but have made up ground on leaders Cornwall, who lost to Oxfordshire, and Cheshire and Dorset who saw their second-versus-third clash abandoned without a ball being bowled.

“We have kept ourselves in there and now it’s on the last two games,” said Ralph, whose team are 15 points adrift of Cornwall.

“With the way the other results went and the target we were set, we wanted to take the loss out of the equation and see where we were after 20 overs of the chase – but we had lost four wickets by then. Overall I’m happy with the performance.”

Ralph has defended his decision to bat himself at No 7, with many believing he should be higher up the order. “I’m not in the best of form at the moment and I wanted to spread the batsmen out so the tail wasn’t too long,” he said.

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