BROMSGROVE skipper Mark Evenson has urged his players to find their form after they slumped to a fourth-straight defeat over the weekend which has left the Boars perilously close to the Birmingham League Division One relegation zone.
The Boars sit third-from-bottom and are just 22 points above the drop zone with nine games remaining after succumbing to a two-wicket defeat to Attock on Saturday.
Evenson won the toss and elected to bat and once again it was Worcestershire’s Alexei Kervezee who led the way as his 79 runs off 73 balls guided the Boars to 204 all out in the 54th over.
Ashley Newfield (23), Alistair Hickman (28) and Jack Harding (23) added small batches of runs on a difficult afternoon for the Boars who failed to cope with the bowling of Safraz Ali (3-38) and Haaris Khan (3-33).
In their response, Attock posted a score of 207-8 in the 44th over with the help of a half century from Omar Masood and 66 from captain Rawait Khan.
Fifteen-year-old debutant bowler George Marshall impressed in the defeat with figures of 3-24.
Evenson said: “We dropped Attock’s captain when he was on nine so things could have been a whole lot different if he was caught out at that early stage.
“Once again we had some woes with the ball as they scored 78 after eight overs and as they were only chasing 200, it’s a long way back to get a result.
“George did fantastic with the ball but once again we’re relying on Alexei to get the runs which is no shock.
“Over the last four of five games Alexei has been hitting 70 per cent of our runs because he’s in the form of his life.
“If Alexei was at New Road, games would be over a lot sooner so we need the rest of the squad to find their form.
“We’ve been 30 to 40 runs short of where we’d want to be but it’s all down to pressure and lack of confidence.”
Evenson will be hoping his side can put an end to their poor run of form on Saturday when they welcome Wellington to St Godwald’s Park.
Marshall retains his place for the clash while Alex Wilkinson has been called back up from the Seconds to replace Graeme Whiles.
Experienced middle-order batsman Matt Dalloway comes in but Lewis Cordes is missing due to work commitments.
“We’ve got a very strong squad on paper but it’s time to put that strength on to the grass,” Evenson added.
“Picking up 20 or 24 points this weekend would be massive at this crucial stage of the season.
“The league table is still tightly packed and back-to-back victories can fire you up four or five places.
“There’s plenty of points left up for grabs and it’s time to right some errors and make our own luck.”
