Birmingham League round-up: Shrewsbury keep title hopes alive with victory
Shrewsbury avoided slipping further behind in the title race after beating Moseley by five wickets in the Birmingham & District League Division One.
Moseley opened with the bat and Abdullah Awan propelled them to an electrifying start with an excellent 132 runs from 128 balls.
That set the tone for a high-scoring battle and Haaris Syed hit 67, while Sardara Narotra (29 not out) and Andrew Umeed (24) helped Moseley finish the innings strongly on 308/7.
Rhodri Evans took an impressive five wickets for Shrewsbury and Harry Darley took the remaining two.
However, George Hargrave was in inspired form for Shrewsbury and led the comeback charge with 131 from 117 balls.
It was a phenomenal response and Matt Swift (73 not out) and Lyr Thomas (55) followed suit to guide Shrewsbury to a winning 309/5.
That saw Shrewsbury extended their winning streak to four games in Division One, with their last defeat coming at Halesowen on July 5.
League leaders Smethwick maintained their 21-point lead over Shrewsbury in second spot after winning at Wolverhampton by a whopping 167 runs.
Shifnal climbed into seventh place in Division Two after emerging victorious by four wickets in their local rivalry at Worfield.
Rishin Patabedige high-scored for Worfield with 46, before Joe Arnold (31), Joe Wright (26) and Ross Aucott (23) kept the run count ticking.
Jack Twigger took three wickets for Shifnal, Charlie Home and Cameron Jones collected two apiece and Jack Shields and Harry Parton took the remaining wickets, as Worfield finishing 205/9.
In response, Home shone on the bat to hit 76 from 100 balls, with Ben Lees also impressive with a score of 69 not out.
Shahrukh Khan took four wickets for Worfield but they could not prevent Shifnal from sweeping to victory with a winning 208/6 inside 44.2 overs.
That saw Worfield fall to back-to-back defeats and leaves them floating precariously in 10th place, just 18 points above the bottom two.
Meanwhile, Shifnal ended a run of two straight defeats by securing their first win in four matches, although they trail sixth place Tamworth by 23 points.
