Bromsgrove 174 all out Aston Unity 89 all out

Bromsgrove won by 85 runs

A DEVASTATING display of bowling by Nick Husbands made sure that Bromsgrove inflicted a heavy defeat on strugglers Aston Unity in the Birmingham and District League Division One on Saturday.

Husbands is so often the Boars' most dangerous bowler that when he produces a match winning performance it is no surprise, but against Aston Unity he surpassed his usual high standards, dismantling the Sutton Coldfield side's batting order and taking a five wicket haul for just eight runs.

Victory over the bottom side also alleviated the Boars' relegation fears in Division One. The Boars are now third from bottom with a 96 point advantage over Aston Unity.

Batting first, Bromsgrove made a steady start against Unity's bowlers. Captain Nick Davies was the first victim of Unity's dangerous bowler Aurrel Kirnon, who had him caught by Jack Davies for 15 runs.

Bromsgrove's batting order had no answer to the impressive Kirnon, who went onto record 7-80 after a mammoth 25 over bowling spell.

Australian Simon Allison coped better with Aston's captain until exactly the same combination that had removed Davies caught him out on 33 runs.

With the openers dismissed the rest of Bromsgrove's order struggled to make runs. Jordan Rose was caught by Davies after being terrorised by Kirnon. Andrew Stevenson had Omar Ali caught for one and in form Julian Court fell prey to the dangerous duo of Kirnon and Davies, as Bromsgrove looked to be heading for a small score.

But Bromsgrove's middle order saved the day as Phil Hamilton (31), Nadeem Malik (48) and Mark Evenson (21) all added crucial runs as the trio helped guide their team to 174 all out by the 50th over.

After a decent start with the bat Bromsgrove's bowlers tore through Aston's batting order to win the game comfortably.

Speed merchant Zafran Ali dismissed opener Terry Hudson for 16, while Malik had Chris Dargan caught by Davies.

Husbands took the first of his victims when he had Valid Butt caught by Bromsgrove's captain for 23 runs.

With the team's top three batsmen dismissed Bromsgrove's bowlers destroyed what was left of Aston's batting order. Malik removed Saleem Malik (0) and Matthew Nicholas (0), before Husbands took it upton himself to tear through the lower order batsmen.

He dismissed Heath (6), Kirnon (6), Davies (2), Andrew Dargan (0) and Griffiths as Aston collapsed to 89 all out.