Shropshire's cricketers looking to respond positively following Trophy defeat against Cumbria

Shropshire, who reached the final of the National Counties 50-over competition last year, lost by 73 runs at Bridgnorth to a Cumbria side inspired by a century from Tom Fraine and a five-wicket haul from Ethan Hardie-Knight.

Shropshire will have home advantage again when they face Cambridgeshire at Shifnal on Sunday ahead of an away game against Cheshire at Oxton Cricket Club 24 hours later.

Ed Ashlin, Shropshire's first-team coach, said: "It's a good opportunity to come straight back. We can hopefully look to get a win on the board on Sunday and then back it up on Monday. It's a busy weekend of cricket for everyone as most of the players will be playing league cricket on Saturday.

"It's a lot of cricket, but we're really looking forward to it. We are happy with the squad that we have and backing them to come back strong and build on the positives that we had on Sunday in the Cumbria game."

Replying to Cumbria's total of 319-8 at Cricket Meadow, Shropshire were bowled out for 246, with Andre Bradford's half century the highlight for the home side.

Opener Fraine, a former Yorkshire Academy player, hit a fine 119 from 117 balls, which included 18 fours, for the visitors. He shared an opening stand of 108 with Calum Rowe (41) before then putting on 81 for the second wicket with Ben Walkden (33).

Michael Slack (28) and Max Winskill (20) also chipped in as Cumbria, having been 189-1 at one stage after being asked to bat, kept the scoreboard ticking over. Roman Walker (2-50), Theo Wylie (2-53) and Ben Roberts (2-54) led the way with the ball for the hosts.

Bradford, at number four, started his fifth season playing for Shropshire by top scoring with 71 from 84 balls, including a six and seven fours, in the home side's reply.

Bradford was involved in the best partnership of the Shropshire innings, putting on 72 for the sixth wicket with wicketkeeper Ben Lees (40), while Tom Fell, captaining the team with Charlie Home ruled out through injury, struck 42, and opener Harry Chandler made 27.

Spinner Hardie-Knight enjoyed a debut to remember for Cumbria, claiming 5-57, while skipper Slack also played his part with the ball, taking 2-26, with Shropshire bowled out in the 45th over.

Coach Ashlin added: "We wanted to obviously win the game, but Cumbria played a good game of 50-over cricket. They had a batter in Tom Fraine who played an outstanding knock and got a really good hundred, so credit to him, the way he played. He didn't really give us a chance and punished us early on

"We came back really well because it could have been more runs from the start we had, so there were positives in the field that the bowlers came back well and the fielders supported them with that.

"We felt at half time that we could chase the target. The wicket was playing really nicely, Bridgnorth is a fast-scoring ground, so we felt we were still very much in the game, but we knew we were going to have to bat well.

"I think overall we chased pretty well, but we needed a couple of really big partnerships and someone to go and get a really big score, and we didn't quite have that.

"Andre Bradford played nicely and had a good partnership with Ben Lees and also Tom Fell. We chased positively, but everything has to be perfect when you're chasing over 300 and we couldn't quite get over the line from that perspective. But credit to Cumbria as they made it difficult for us and they deserved the win on the day."