Oxfordshire's attack, missing injured skipper Luke Ryan, were given the run around on the first day of their Western Division match against Shropshire at Banbury yesterday.

Ryan had to drop out after splitting the webbing of his left hand, while playing for Banbury the previous day.

Seamer Chad Keegan took over as captain, with Michael Beard coming into the starting line-up.

Keegan succeeded in his first task of winning the toss and chose to bat first on a belter of a pitch.

But his batsmen let him down, being all out for 226.

Shropshire then showed how it should be done by finishing on 250-5 from 37.5 overs.

At the start of the day, Richard Kaufman got Oxon off to a flier with 62 off 91 balls, including ten fours and a six.

But the middle order fell away against the pace of Ben Sanderson as they slipped to 115-4. Jonny Cater, scorer of two hundreds in the previous match against Cornwall, was out second ball for a duck.

Jamie Perkin and Beard added 58 for the fifth wicket, but after that no-one could stay with Perkin, who was left stranded on 54 not out.

Sanderson was the pick of the Shropshire bowlers with 4-67.

The visitors then blitzed the Oxfordshire bowlers, taking 65 off the first seven overs.

The pattern had been set. Although they lost three quick wickets, Shropshire kept up the momentum.

Robert Foster and James Ralph added 161 for the fourth wicket at more than six runs per over to sail past the Oxon total.

There was some joy for the hosts at the end of the day with Keegan dismissing Foster for 82 and then having nightwatchman Elliott Green caught behind.