Andre Bradford’s second unbeaten half-century of the day helped Shropshire win their final group game as they booked their place in the Super 12s stage of the National Counties T20 Cup.
Having lost Sunday’s opener against Northumberland by 11 runs at Wellington, Shropshire responded positively to win game two by seven wickets.
The victory – Shropshire’s fifth from eight T20 matches this season – lifted them to the top of the Group One table and guaranteed qualification to the next stage as one of the top three teams in their group.
The four other sides in Group One still have to complete their fixtures on July 5, and then Shropshire will find out the venue and their opponents for the Super 12s on August 9.
“It’s nice to qualify,” said Shropshire team manager Dave Cartledge. “I would have liked to have won both games so that we stood a good chance of getting a home draw in the Super 12s.
“We can still get a home draw, but we are relying on Staffordshire losing twice at Cumbria and Northumberland losing once against Cheshire, so that’s out of our hands.
“But we’ve qualified and that’s brilliant. It’s what we set out to do at the start of the competition.
“We’ve had quite a few people who haven’t been involved in this competition before playing, the younger element, and they’ve done very, very well.”
Reflecting on Shropshire’s performances in the group stage, Cartledge added: “We’ve tended to lose the first game and then play well and win the second game, with the exception at Cumbria when we won them both – but I think we’ve done really well and I’m more than pleased.
“We’ve won games not through containing teams, we’ve won games through taking wickets, bowling their best players out.
“There hasn’t really been a big chase. We’ve been chasing around 120, 130, with the opposition seven eight, nine wickets down.”
Just like in game one at Wellington, Northumberland again elected to bat after winning the toss in the second match, with the north east side making 121-8 from their 20 overs.
Saw the job through
John Oswell (37) and Ross Whitfield (27) led the way for the visitors, with Wellington’s Ollie Smith taking 2-21 at his home club ground and Ben Roberts 2-25.
Shropshire recovered well from 9-2 after Sean Tindale (2-19) had struck twice in the second over, with Bradford and Joe Johnson (40) putting on 67 for the third wicket.
Bradford, who ended unbeaten on 52 from 55 balls, with one four, was then joined in the middle by Theo Wylie (23no) and they saw the job through to lead Shropshire to 125-3 with nine balls to spare.
The day’s opening match saw Oswell also top score for Northumberland with 59 from 41 deliveries as the visitors, also boosted by 24 from Jonny Bushnell, accumulated 137-9.
Shifnal seamer Roberts claimed 3-18 – his combined figures across both matches were 5-43 – with Smith (2-24) and Connor Marshall (2-30) also among the wickets.
Shropshire, in reply, were soon in trouble at 18-4 and later 49-7.
Bradford and Roberts then impressively put on an unbroken 77, a new highest eighth-wicket partnership for Shropshire in T20 cricket, as the county ended 11 runs short in their chase on 126-7, with Tindale taking 4-22.
Bradford struck an unbeaten 56 from 40 balls, which included two sixes and four boundaries, and he was well supported by Roberts (26no).
“Andre is a class act,” said Cartledge. “He’s a stable influence. He understands the game, he knows what he can do and he knows what needs to be done.
“He almost did it again in the first game against Northumberland, just like he did against Cambridgeshire in the 50-over competition at Shifnal earlier this season, when he got us there in the end and won the game.
“He did it well in the second game against Northumberland, with good support from Joe Johnson and Theo Wylie. Ben Roberts also played really well with Andre in the first game.”
Shropshire’s next match is the NCCA Showcase Game against first-class neighbours Worcestershire, a 50 overs per side contest, at Worfield on Tuesday, July 7.
Pictured: Wellington’s Orleton Park ground hosted Shropshire’s two T20 matches against Northumberland.