EVESHAM warmed up for a crunch clash with title rivals Stourport with an impressive eight-wicket win against Pedmore.
Evesham remain third in Worcestershire League Division One, 27 points behind leaders Bewdley, but they have closed the gap on second-placed Stourport to 11 points after the latter’s abandoned match against Worcester Nomads.
Evesham will look to keep up the momentum on Saturday when Stourport are the visitors.
An unbeaten third-wicket stand between Ali Shan and skipper Mohammed Fahim Maan steered Evesham to victory after Sadam Khan had earlier taken five wickets.
Khan finished with 5-58 off ten overs as Pedmore were hustled out for 204 in the 42nd over.
There were also two wickets apiece from James Crenan (2-30) and Maan (2-43) as four of Pedmore’s batters had decent starts but then lost their wickets.
Calum White, hitting 47 at No 8, was the top scorer, while there were useful contributions from Dave Skelding (43), Asif Iqbal (42) and Jason Gale (30).
Opener Muhammad Saqib gave Evesham a steady start with 31 after Johnson Lourdhusamy fell for six, but Shan hit 73 not out and Maan 68 as they dominated the bowling to quickly steer the visitors home after 22 overs.
Sajid Ali top-scored with 86 for Evesham seconds but they went down to a five-wicket defeat at home to Belbroughton in 2nd XI Division Two.
Ali and opener Ghayas Uddin (52) provided the real impetus to the innings and Nouman Zahoor added 32 batting at six to take the score to 230-7 off 30 overs. Harrison Masters took 3-34.
A solid opening stand between Richard Dunn (62) and Ronnie Ball (44) gave Belbroughton the perfect start and, although first-change bowlers Ali (2-44) and Farrukh Zaib (3-66) got among the wickets, Belbroughton reached their target in 37 overs.
The seconds visit Lye tomorrow.
Evesham thirds had to settle for a losing draw in their trip to Belbroughton in Division Eight South.
Evesham were dismissed for 209 off the penultimate ball of the contest at the Douglas Ground.
Opener Jobant SIngh top-scored with 46, aided by 38 from Kausar Mehmood and 35 from Muhammad Sufyan, as Jon Lee snapped up 5-30.
In reply, Belbroughton’s Andrew Farmer was their star, hitting 89 not out as they got past a revised winning draw target of 139 at 145-3 in 22 overs.