Shepshed take the honours and win the Covid Cup final

IT was the Covid Cup Group 19 Cup Final for Shepshed Cricket Clubs 4th team on Saturday with the final being played at Pudding Bag Lane against Birstall Village 2nds

With respect this was a home cup final for the Shepshed Lads.

Shepshed won the toss and decided to put Birstall into bat and from the start the runs began to flow with Birstall putting 100 on for the first wicket.

Shepshed stuck to their task and started to take some wickets and by the end of their 40 overs they had bowled and fielded really well against their higher ranked opponents as Birstall posted a very impressive 275 for 9.

Ian Bartlett scored 114 and he was backed up by Steve White with 31. Jono Gayden chipped in with 28 and Jack Wright finished on 25 not out.

The pick of the Shepshed bowlers yet again was youngster Issac Read who took 4 for 35, Danny Miller took 3 for 49 and Jake Lister took 2 for 38.

Shepshed began their task in some style and set about the Birstall bowlers. They did exactly what the Birstall openers had done with Jake Lister and Corey Chantrill putting 70 for the first wicket. But moments later Corey Chantrill was bowled for 44 but Phil Warrington scored a stylish 19. Opener Jake Lister scored 18 and Ethan Brentnall scored a gutsy 15 but it was all in vain as Shepshed lost 5 wickets with none of the Shepshed batsman reaching double figures which resulted in Shepshed being bowled out for 150 in 34.5 overs.

This was a superb effort by the Shepshed lads with their mixture of youngsters and senior player’s putting in a very gallant performance but on the day they came up a very strong Birstall side who could quite easily play at an higher level.