BARNARDS Green survived a mid-order collapse to earn a thrilling two-wicket win at Wombourne in Division One of the Birmingham League.
After bowling the hosts out for 165 thanks to Alex Hepburn’s 4-36, Green looked to be cruising to victory at 120-4.
But they then lost four wickets for just 37 runs to leave them 157-8 before composed innings from Rishe Umasuthan and number 10, Tim Williams, saw them home.
Green captain Andy Ford won the toss and chose to field and the first over brought the first wicket as Umasuthan bowled Jake Cartwright for nought.
Hepburn also struck in his first over as Jamie Miller edged behind also without scoring. A century partnership between Henry Bartlett and Ben Hudson then took the score to 113-2, before Ford made a double breakthrough as he had
Hudson caught at mid-on for 56 and Bartlett caught by Andrew Curtis at short mid-wicket for 42.
Wickets then continued to tumble as only Jack Williams (30) provided any resistance and Wombourne were eventually dismissed in the 46th over.
In the reply, George Rhodes and Curtis started confidently as they both hit boundaries early on but Curtis soon fell when he edged one to the keeper for 13.
61-1 soon became 65-3 as Hepburn (10) and Rhodes (31) were both dismissed and Ford, who hit a giant six off his first ball, soon followed to leave the score 77-4.
Alex Milton and wicket-keeper Ashlea Brewer took the score to 120 before Brewer was caught and bowled for 21 as he tried to clip the ball over mid-wicket.
Kevin Golder and Jonathan Dovey were soon back in the pavilion for 11 and 6 respectively and Milton was the eighth wicket to fall four short of his half-century.
But Williams took his side to victory with two boundaries.
The 20 points taken from the game means Green rise to fifth in the table with one game remaining.