WES Griffiths believes it is only a matter of time before Halesowen CC’s top-order start firing.

The club’s batsmen have been plagued by inconsistency despite a generally solid start to the season for the Seth Somers Park outfit.

Last Saturday’s three wicket win over Evesham, which helped put them fourth in Birimingham League Division One, featured another shaky start but with third-placed Water Orton visiting this weekend, skipper Griffiths has backed his big hitters to deliver.

He said: “We have had to dig ourselves out of a hole all too often when batting this season.

“We have an awful lot of faith in the top four, they have class and should be some of the best batters in the league but are struggling for form.

“I would still say we have not even got into third or fourth gear yet but we are still there or thereabouts.”

Alert fielding played a key part in Halesowen’s victory over bottom placed Evesham, as the run outs of Nadeem Hussain (47) and Shazhad Ayaz (39) saw the visitors collapse from 183-4 to 201 all out when they had looked set to post a challenging score.

But their total looked well above par when the hosts slumped to 13-3 and then 43-4, before Shafiq Ahmed (42) and Griffiths (58) began the fightback.

Phil Croft also struck 40 but there was still time for a late wobble before Hales got over the line.

Griffiths added: “We made hard work of it in the end and we didn’t really help ourselves. They came out and played quite well, they were batting pretty sensibly and at one stage looked like making around 240 or 260.

“The run outs were important and just proved how you must always be on your toes. From then on they struggled and we were able to exploit their lack of confidence.

“Just over 200 looked a gettable score but even then we made things difficult. But I was pleased at how we stuck at the task. The team is showing a lot of heart which is really encouraging.”