Shropshire Star

Weather saves Shropshire from Cornish pasting

Relieved Shropshire CCC captain Steve Leach praised his side’s character after the weather came to their rescue in the Unicorns Championship match against Cornwall.

Published

Shropshire were able to escape with an unlikely draw after just 93 minutes of play was possible on the final day of the three-day clash at St Austell.

Resuming on 101-6, still 353 runs behind, Jack McIver was the only wicket to fall just after the new ball had been taken.

But his stubborn 25 off 101 balls and an unbeaten 31 off 144 by Ross Aucott helped the visitors survive long enough until bad light, and later heavy downpours, intervened.

Leach said: “We batted really well in the second innings to bat 96 overs to save the game on a spinning pitch. The weather helped us out and we’ve got a draw that we didn’t deserve.

“We obviously didn’t play anywhere near as well as we would have liked in this match, but this team has a lot of character and showed that to hold out as long as we did.”

Shropshire were skittled out for 123 in their first innings after the hosts posted 349-5 from their 90 overs.

But Leach refused to lay the blame with the batsman and insisted their bowling must improve.

“The first innings we got outplayed,” he added.

“We didn’t bat as we would have liked, but if we’re not going to bowl teams out then we’re going to struggle to get results.”