Shifnal are determined to keep the ball rolling

The Birmingham League side are joint-top of GWT Group 1 with Bridgnorth, with both sides taking three wins from four games.

Shifnal beat Bridgnorth by 28 runs last weekend to level the standings at the top of the table. Now, all sides in the group play the same team two weeks in a row with Shifnal preparing to face Wolverhampton.

“Shrewsbury and Wolverhampton are only one win behind and we have Wolverhampton home and away in the next two weeks, which will be two tough games,” Murrall said.

“It’s definitely a first, I’ve not played the same team two weeks in a row before.

“It’s a bit weird and if we get at their top order in the first week, it might make it a bit more difficult the week after as they come out to face the guy that got them out the week before.

“They’re a decent side and have won two out of the first four, which is only one behind us and Bridgnorth.

“They’re always at the top end and have been a Premier Division side for a long time, so we’ll definitely be respectful as we know they have some good players. But hopefully we can get the win.”

Last time out Shifnal proved handy with the bat, with several players contributing as they piled up 271 – which included a James Sookias century.

Now, Murrall is focused on his side improving their play with the ball in the remaining games.

“The way we have batted in the last two weeks has been brilliant – it’s been our biggest positive,” he added.

“We need to keep that up but we need to be better with the ball and more disciplined.

“We’re bowling a lot of extras and giving away a lot of soft runs, that’s where our game needs to improve if we’re looking at finishing towards the top of the table.

“We’ll work on it and improve.”

Meanwhile, Shrewsbury will face Oswestry twice over the next two weeks after both sides having recorded two wins from four so far.

The London Road men beat Wolverhampton by four wickets on Saturday, following two consecutive losses, and captain Will Parton insists his side cannot afford to drop any more points.

“We see it as a good opportunity to come off the back of a good win and push through to get a string of wins,” Parton said.

“We know that to finish at the top of the table we can’t really lose another game. We have to try and pick up some momentum now we got another win last weekend. We need to carry on what we did last week. All the bowlers bowled well and restricted them.

“If anything we can be a bit tighter in the field and not give away extras. We probably could have restricted Wolverhampton to 20 less runs from our fielding.

“There was a little blip in the batting where we lost a little cluster of wickets.

“We’ve won by four wickets with seven overs to spare but if we want to be ultra critical of ourselves, myself and Rob (Foster) probably should have knocked it off and been done 40 minutes earlier.

“We have to stick to our tight bowling against Oswestry and I’m sure we can pick up the wins.”

The other GWT Group 1 game sees winless Wem travel to Bridgnorth.