BARNT Green captain Andy Sutton lamented a poor batting display as they slipped to a damaging loss at the hands of Shrewsbury in Birmingham League Premier.

In a rain-hit game, Green overcame an injury crisis in the bowling department to reduce their opponents to 223-9.

But their batting order failed to hit form as they were dismissed for 117 all out.

Green only had four bowlers because Tom Banton and Sam Cheshire were injured, while Luke Radford is set to be sidelined for three months because of a groin strain.

Despite being a man down in the bowling department, Warwickshire’s Josh Poysden was in excellent form as he grabbed six wickets, while there was one each for Tom Brown and Sutton.

After a break for rain, Green were given a target of 209 to win but none of the batsmen were unable to post a big score as Adam Hussain top scored with 23 runs.

Sutton said: “Considering that we were missing a lot of players in the bowling and had just four we did well.

“Josh really came to the fore as our Warwickshire player and was unplayable.

“The batting let us down, we didn’t seem to have a plan and, considering we had a small total to catch, that was disappointing.”

Green are mid-table and face a Bank Holiday weekend packed with derby action.

They entertain third-placed Kidderminster on Saturday before a trip to Ombersley on Monday (both games noon starts).

Sutton said: “We have five games of the season left and we want to win all of them and finish as high as we can.

“It’s familiar situation for us that when we’ve got all our players available we’re a match for everybody but it’s a matter of having everyone playing.”