SKIPPER Faisal Shahid was in a jubilant mood after leading Halesowen to their first win of the season over Old Elizabethans at the weekend – despite his own batting disappointment.

Shahid suffered a duck in only the second ball of the Halesowen innings – but the rest of his team rallied well to bounce back from two successive defeats.

He said: “Batting was very awkward at the start and it was definitely a toss to win.

“The middle order was very solid and I can't speak highly enough of the efforts of all the guys who got runs.

“Zain steadied the ship after we lost three early and Will and Wes hit the ball very well.

“Jujhar batted with great maturity for his age and steered us to a very competitive total.

“When we bowled we did exactly what I'd been asking the boys to do. We put the ball in the right place and restricted their opportunity to score and in doing so created the opportunity to take wickets. It was a great all round team performance.”

Halesowen were wobbling at 30-3 early on, but the innings was steadied by Zain Shahid (29) and Will Barrett (45).

The fall of Shahid’s wicket with the score on 75-4 sent Wes Griffiths in to join Barrett who then fell to an excellent catch on the deep square leg boundary, by Booth off the bowling of OE’s South African overseas star Johann Smit, just when he was threatening to run riot.

Griffiths was then joined at the wicket by 15 year old Jujhar Johal and took on the senior role in their partnership of 66 with some fine hitting until he too was caught in the deep by Booth for 44 this time off the bowling of Bastable.

The star of the show, however, was Johal who made an unbeaten half century in good time in only his second appearance for the first XI. His 54 not out, assisted by Dan Jeavons (22 no) enabled Halesowen to set a very respectable 232-6 from their allotted 50 overs.

Taking the field Dan Jeavons struck early to remove South African Smit for just 4 with the score at 16-1. Boyle and Major then put on 60 for the second wicket before Major fell to Zain Shahid for 26.

With Boyle still at the crease OE’s looked to be in with a chance of overhauling the Halesowen total but when he fell to Rich Brooker for 64 with the total on 125-4 the momentum swung in favour of the visitors. Succeeding where they had failed in previous weeks by restricting the oppositions ability to score with some tight bowling, the wickets continued to fall at regular intervals and they were spread between the bowlers with Jeavons finishing with 3-58 and Brooker and Zain Shahid each bagging a brace.

Elizabethans were bowled out for 180 in the final over and Halesowen won by 52 runs.

Halesowen second’s moved to the top of the table with a home victory against Wellington.

Batting first, Halesowen posted a target of 192 all out largely due to Richard Cox (62), Deon Patel (43) and Musharraf Shazad (31). In response Wellington were dismissed for just 155 with Shazad taking 3-55, Hawker 2-13 and Jones 3-31. Off spinner Carl Bust, who opened the bowling went for just 10 runs from his 10 overs.

Next week sees the firsts on their travels to Eastnor who are yet to record a win while the 2’s entertain Shrewsbury in a top of the table clash.