FAISAL Shadid has sung the praises of Halesowen’s talented teenager Jujhar Johal ahead of this weekend’s Birmingham League opener.

The club skipper saw his 16-year-old rising star hit an unbeaten 54 as Halesowen beat Smethwick in their final warm-up game.

Now they are preparing to go to Tamworth on Saturday (12pm start) with the seconds facing their Tamworth counterparts at Seth Somers Park.

Skipper Shadid said: “We weren’t at full strength and still managed to beat higher level opposition in Smethwick.

“We had no reservations about promoting Jujhar into the side as he's risen to every challenge that he's been set thus far.

“He's turning into a fine cricketer and I fully expect him to go from strength to strength.”

The home side were restricted to just 182 all out with Navdeep Poonia and Mo Sheikh both hitting half centuries.

The wickets were shared amongst the Halesowen bowlers with Eddie Rhodes, Rich Brooker and Zain Shahid all bagging a brace.

The run chase was led by Johal, on his first XI debut, who scored an undefeated 54 and the total was chased down for the loss of six wickets with an over to spare.

Back at the home ground the second XI were making light work of their Smethwick counterparts who looked considerably under strength.

Mark Hutchinson scored 50 for the second successive week and was joined by Andy Roberts and Scott Jones with half centuries.

New boy Richard Thurston fell four short of 50 in his first appearance for the club. In reply Smethwick never looked like chasing down the total of 265 although Sajid scored a useful unbeaten 50 lower down the order.

Sunday saw Dorridge CC visit in the National T20 Knock Out and a patched up Halesowen side, batting first, posted a competitive looking 170 with useful lower order runs from Richard Brooker and Eddie Rhodes boosting the total.

When former Halesowen all rounder Mo Ishtiaq fell to a good catch in the deep by Richard Cox it looked like Halesowen might be set for an unlikely victory but the Dorridge middle order, led by Joe Dodd, steadied the ship after the loss of three early wickets.

Dodd’s unbeaten 88 saw Dorridge reach the total with some ease and with two overs to spare.

Meanwhile, next Wednesday night, April 29, sees Halesowen welcome former World Darts semi-finalist Wayne ‘Hawai-501’ Mardle to the club for a special exhibition evening.

Mardle will be joined by locally based Sky Sports and talkSPORT broadcaster Nigel Pearson and there will be an opportunity to play Mardle through a raffle, followed by a Q&A.

Admission is £10 and there are limited tickets remaining on the door. Doors open at 7pm, 8pm start.