CAPTAIN Mark Evenson has urged his Bromsgrove teammates to bring the curtain down on their Birmingham & District Premier Division Two season with a victory at Bridgnorth on Saturday (noon).
Led by a century by Jayden Levitt, Bromsgrove pushed league leaders Harborne all the way but lost by three wickets in their final game at St Godwalds Road last weekend.
Evenson has turned his eyes towards securing at least a finishing position of sixth, if not fifth, against their sixth-placed opponents this weekend.
“We’re aiming for fifth, but a win will take us above Bridgnorth into sixth,” he said.
“We’ve had a brilliant second half of the season after the start we had.
“The last two defeats have been disappointing, but it’s a measure of where we’re at at the moment.”
Batting first after winning the toss, opener Jack Taylor (9) fell early on when dismissed by James Hunt (2-50), while number three Ashley Newfield (11) failed to get up and running when departing at 43-2.
But a sensational batting display by opener Levitt (118), aided by middle order duo Ryan Pedley (23) and Deon Patel (33), quickly established Bromsgrove’s foothold in the game.
Levitt put together partnerships of 79 and 73 with Pedley and Patel respectively, before eventually departing off the last ball of the innings which ended on 232-5.
Harborne opened with a stand of 50 between Tom Arnold (32) and Guriq Randhawa (30), with Randhawa then putting on 85 for the second wicket alongside Tom Payne (60).
Captain James Hunt (26) and Karan Bharaj (36) took the visitors to the 200-run mark with a fourth-wicket partnership of 61, before Tom Russell (3-42) dismissed the latter.
Though Harborne’s run rate slowed, Dan Davis (4no) and Ben Langdell (4no) took their side over the line.
“It was a strange result,” said Evenson.
“Jayden had a fantastic batting spell, but we didn’t cover ourselves in glory with our bowling.
“It was hard to drag it back after that – which was disappointing.”
Evenson confirmed Alex Milton, who was called up for T20 duty with Worcestershire last week, will return this week. There will also be a debut for Tom Downing from the Seconds, with Tom Hill missing out.
