Shropshire League: Lead cut after Quatt fall to second defeat

Leaders Quatt suffered just their second defeat of the season to leave things tighter at the top of the Shropshire Cricket League.

An excellent display of bowling from Ashish Ashish and Baba Khan earned St Georges an impressive 89-run win over the pacesetters.

Put into bat, St Georges made 274-8 thanks largely to an excellent 82 from Charita Kumarasinghe, with Amritpal Singh (54) also hitting a half century.

Quatt began their chase in confident mood with Ryan Wheldon (47) and Tom Whitney (40) putting on 93 for the opening wicket.

But Wheldon became the first of two wickets for Khan, who then sparked a collapse when he ran out Whitney with the score on 129.

A further five wickets fell for just 29 runs with Ashish finishing with figures of 4-55. Quatt were eventually bowled out for just 185.

Their defeat allowed closest challengers Wem the chance to close the gap at the top and they did so with a thumping six-wicket win over bottom club Newtown.

Ralph Davies and Tom Astley both claimed five wickets each as the visitors were bowled out for just 140, Rhys Jones delivering the only real resistance with an excellent 75 from just 74 balls as the rest of the line-up collapsed around him.

Josh Gough then struck an unbeaten 46 from just 39 balls as Wem raced to the target inside 24 overs.

Wem are back to within 19 points of the leaders, with an 11-point buffer of their own over third-placed Wellington, who had to settle for a winning draw at Shrewsbury seconds.

Matt Simmonds’ fine 72 helped the visitors compile 263-8 from their 50 overs and the all-rounder then appeared to have put them on the brink of victory when his second wicket reduced the hosts to 158-8, with more than 10 overs remaining.

But Tom Griffin dug in to support the excellent Kieran Gill, who finished unbeaten on 75 from 128 balls having batted through almost the entire reply.

Whitchurch also lost ground as they were beaten in a one-wicket thriller by Allscott Heath.

Elliott Bowen top scored with 43, while Kuldeep Devatwal took four wickets as Whitchurch were bowled out for 196.

Luke Thornton (36) and Austin Rowley (34) then made key contributions for Allscott but wickets continued to fall at regular intervals as the match remained in the balance.

The ninth wicket fell with 10 still required for victory but Bryn Simmons (34 not out) stayed cool to see his team over the line.

A brilliant unbeaten century from Nathan Engelbrecht helped Ludlow storm to a welcome win over Sentinel.

Tom Griffiths’ 108 helped the visitors reach 274-7 from their 50 overs. But it was Engelbrecht who then snatched the spotlight, scoring 153 from 171 balls as they home side chased down the target with just two wickets down and nearly three overs to spare.

Madeley captain Mithun Jayawickrama fell agonisingly short of a century against Shelton.

Jayawickrama was dismissed on 98 but his effort was not in vain, as his team racked up 295-9.

The total proved well beyond Shelton, who were dismissed for just 171 to lose by 124 runs.