Wellington face uphill battle in play-off finale

Wellington face an uphill battle to win promotion to the Birmingham & District Premier League through the County League play-offs.

The Shropshire County League champions must beat Worcestershire League champions Stourport well at Smethwick and hope current table-toppers Aston Manor overcome Fordhouses in the other game.

Aston Manor lead the way on 40 points after two wins from two, with Stourport second on 26 points and Fordhouses third with 22, having both one one each. Wellington are not yet out of it, despite losing both matches to sit bottom of the four-team table on 10 points.

A brilliant unbeaten 136 from Zia Ul Haq Parwani steered Aston Manor to an exciting six-wicket home win over Wellington in match one on Saturday.

Chasing Wellington’s challenging 312/8 in 49 overs, following a brief rain delay during the visitors’ innings, Manor charged to the finishing line with more than two overs remaining.

Openers Qundeel Haider (42) and Lovish Dar (57) got the chase away to a good start by adding 79 in 14.2 overs before Parwani took centre stage in the second half of the innings.

He struck 14 fours and two sixes while passing 100 from 91 balls before going on to 136no from 112 balls while adding 70 with Shakeel Janjua (21no).

At 74/4 in the 20th over Wellington earlier seemed unlikely to post a big total but their middle and lower order then changed the momentum of the innings.

Wicket-keeper Morgan Ward led the charge by hitting eight sixes in an excellent 80-ball 88 while adding 129 with sixth-wicket partner David Laird who also cleared the ropes four times while making 52 from 43 balls.

And after a flurry of wickets, enough time remained for Hugh Morris to smash an unbeaten 52 from 39 balls – including a further four sixes.

Seamers Waqar Dad and Akeel Haider both claimed a couple of early wickets for Aston Manor.

Wellington also conceded more than 300 runs in defeat to Fordhouses on Sunday.

Niall Cooper led the way with an even-time 106 containing 15 boundaries. He added 158 in 28 overs with opening partner Muheen Rashid whose 102-ball 82 included nine fours and three sixes.

Alex McChristie continued in similar vein with a fluent 58 and as a result the Shropshire League winners were left to chase 307/6.

After losing two early wickets Wellington regrouped through a useful third-wicket partnership of 60 between Jason Oakes (40) and Morgan Ward (43).

But economic spells from Adam and Lewis Peat tightened the screw and left the defiant David Laird fighting a lone hand. He went on to contribute a robust 82 from 64 balls with four sixes, but despite these late heroics Wellington were bowled out for 240.

Cooper ensured he collected the star man award by adding figures of 5/36 to his earlier ton.