STOURBRIDGE remain rooted to the foot of the table after a losing draw against Wombourne last Saturday.

Stour are facing the drop down to Division Three of the Birmingham and District League with just six matches left to be played.

Skipper Matt Bradley won the toss and decided to field first, only to witness an onslaught from opener Waqas Ahmed.

He slammed 95 from 80 balls, made up of 14 fours and one six. Stour were staring at a 300-plus total had it not been for the second change bowlers who pitched in to make scoring difficult.

Jitesh Jivan-Patel (1-44), Nabeel Ali (0-24) and 16-year-old spinner Dominic O’Reilly (3-48) managed to put the brakes on.

Ahmed was eventually out caught on the boundary off the bowling of O’Reilly in the 28th over, and the run-rate was duly reduced from over five an over to just over three.

The cut in the run-rate was helped by O’Reilly taking the wickets of Ahmed, David Hudson (36) and Ben Hemming (2).

Wombourne’s score had progressed to 140-3 off 34 overs but they used the final overs to get past the 250 mark through Karl and Adam Quiney putting on a partnership of 81 off 60 balls.

Adam Quiney was out caught to Zain Ul-Hassan for 38 with Karl remained not out on 57.

Stour’s reply was below expectations. Needing to sustain a run-rate of 4.7 and above, it hardly climbed to three an over.

By the 22nd over, Stour were 50-3 and both openers, Tarryck Gabriel (8) and Harshad Patel (10), were out by the 12th before Richard Bradley (10) followed.

The only resistance came from 16-year-old Worcestershire academy player Zain Ul-Hassan, who remained not out on 78 off 120 balls having gone in at number three.

The next highest knock came from Aiden Avey’s cameo innings of 22 off 22 balls. Stour’s tail survived the 55 overs to stop a string of outright defeats.

They go to Stratford-upon-Avon on Saturday (noon).