Division One

Just two weeks into the new season and Shrewsbury are the only side in the top flight with back-to-back wins.

The Shropshire lads chalked up a four-wicket victory at Harborne helped by a five-wicket haul for former Derbyshire quickie Dustin Melton and an unbeaten 91 from Seb Scott.

Batting first, Harborne were soon in trouble, losing openers Jamie Harris and Matthew James cheaply as they were reduced to 47/5.

Kshitiz Sharma and Arjun Singh Nahal then put on 94 for the sixth wicket before the former fell for 57. Nahal went on to score 91 off 88 deliveries before he became Melton’s final victim as he finished with figures of 5-44 from his ten overs.

Harborne reached 254/9 from their 50 overs with Andy Sutton still there at the end on 30.

There was early hope for the hosts when they had Shrewsbury opener George Hargrave bowled by Sutton (4-49) for a duck but when Will Parton and Scott put on 108 for the third wicket, taking the score to 149/3, the game had swung in the visitors’ favour.

Parton finished on 45 and Scott and Dan Walker (31no) were able to guide their side to victory with more than six overs to spare.

Berkswell’s Sheridon Gumbs and Neil Dexter both hit centuries to help their side storm to a 198-run victory over visitors Barnards Green.

Opener Gumbs carried his bat on his way to 158 not out off 145 balls including five 6s with skipper Dexter’s 115 coming off just 81 deliveries and included another five 6s.

At the end of their innings, Berkswell had posted 348/6 and this proved far too much for their Worcestershire visitors who were skittled out for 150 in the 38th over. It could have been even worse for Barnards Green had tailenders Ashlea Brewer (56) and Chris Steele (28no) not dug in.

George Maddy was another to find conditions to his liking as the Warwickshire prospect scored 122 not out to help steer Knowle & Dorridge to 301/5 against Wolverhampton. Omaris Khan hit a rapid 40 off 30 balls while Robert Jones (3-71) was the principal wicket-taker.

The visitors scored at a steady pace but were never up with the required rate at Station Road and were all out for 208 with Freddie Fowler (3-40) and Hamza Shaikh (3-46) taking the bulk of the wickets.

Indian all-rounder Deepak Khatri fell just two runs short of his century but this failed to stop Smethwick from reaching 301/9 and registering an 84-run victory over hosts Ombersley. Viken Kedariya (55) was also key for the Black Country side while George Panayi took 3-62.

Ombersley opener Oliver Cox hit a useful 77 but others struggled against the Smethwick bowlers with Tazeem Chaudry Ali taking 4-38.

Elsewhere in Division One, Halesowen suffered a 47-run defeat at home to Himley for whom Spencer Grove top scored with 51 while Ollie Walker returned impressive figures of 4-18 from his 5.1 overs.

Captain Amrinder Brar hit 55 for Barnt Green but ended up on the losing side as Moseley won by 22 runs, skittling out their hosts for 198 after posting 220/8.

Division Two

Coventry & North Warwickshire cruised to a seven-wicket win over Handsworth helped by some impressive bowling.

Indian left-arm spinner Kuldeep Diwan and last season's leading Division Two wicket-taker Sameer Vohra frustrated the Handsworth batsmen with their opening spell before Daljeet Singh ripped through the top order on his way to 5-54.

Danyaal Malik also impressed with 3-28 and the only batsman to show any resistance was Rohel Peters (69) as Handsworth were left on 175-9 at the end of their allotted overs.

With bat in hand, the home side soared to 176-3 after just 33 overs thanks mainly to an unbeaten 65 from opener Will Iles and 79 not out from Akshay Patel.

Dorridge are the early leaders after they beat Kidderminster by 57 runs at Chester Road. West Indies opener Jeremy Solozano (79) and Daniyal Khan (72) set the foundation for victory, putting on 144 for the second wicket before an unbeaten 29 from Luke Horgan helped them to 282/6.

Kidderminster’s reply faltered in spite of a 98-run partnership between Daniel Lategan (61) and Nathan Jukes (51) and they were all out for 225.

Sean Keeling-Wright top scored for Old Hill in their 56-run defeat of Shifnal. Bilal Hassan (49), Saad Naseem (42) and Omar Masood (42) also chipped in as the visitors reached 267/9. Ben Roberts was the pick of the bowlers with 3-41.

Excellent bowling from Hassan (3-25) and Naseem (3-36) had Shifnal in all sorts of trouble and it needed a swashbuckling 69 not out from last man Roberts to take them to 211.

There were five wickets for Stourbridge’s Jaspreet Singh (5-69) but he was unable to stop home side West Bromwich Dartmouth from claiming the spoils at Sandwell Park.

Batting first, the hosts reached 272/9 thanks to a 170-run partnership between Dannyjo Cox (107) and Ateeq Javid (80) while Syed Bukhari took 4-48. Stourbridge fell well short with Seth Rogerson top scoring with 50.

Worfield slumped to a six-wicket defeat at Kenilworth Wardens and prop up the table at the end of week two.

Opening bowlers Tommy Rex (3-23) and Chris Wright (2-19) ensured runs were hard to come by and Rishin Patabedige (49) was the only batsman to trouble the scorers as the former Shropshire League outfit were dismissed for 135.

Keith Bell led the response with an unbeaten 52 with Andrew Leering scoring 30 not out as Wardens breezed home with more than 15 overs in hand.

Warwickshire neighbours Leamington also won, beating Tamworth by four wickets. Craig Miles and Tom Warner took three wickets apiece as the home side were dismissed for 226, Riley Ward leading the way with 55.

Decent knocks from Harrison Smith (64) and Warwickshire’s Craig Miles (68) looked like easing Leamington to victory but in the end they reached their target with just two balls to spare, skipper Jonathan Wigley (19 no) with the winning runs.