SKIPPER Matt Bradley has challenged Stourbridge’s players to make sure they don’t get cut adrift at the bottom of the Birmingham and District Premier Division Two table.

Stour failed to back up their first win of the season when suffering an eight-wicket defeat at home to Penkridge last Saturday.

Bradley’s men had been looking to build on the previous weekend’s success at Harborne but again fell short.

Now the captain wants to move on quickly and focus on this Saturday’s vital clash with fourth from bottom side Oswestry.

Victory would go a long way to making sure the Amblecote outfit keep tabs on their relegation rivals.

He said: “We really need to forget last week now, focus on the things we did against Harborne, and look to get another win on the board. Every game is like a cup final for us.

“The important thing is that we make sure we still have a chance of staying up with three or four games of the season still to go.

“We need to make sure we stay in touch with those around us and are in their fighting at the end of the season.”

Asked to bat first on their home pitch, Stour had crumbled to 91 all out after batting just 39 of the 55 allocated overs against Penkridge.

The visitors then smashed their way to the target off 108 balls Stour’s stark batting failure started from the last ball of the first over when Alex Bingham was bowled by Aamir Manzoor for four.

The highest scorer was Richard Bradley (21), who came in at number six, while the highest partnership was 39 between Richard Bradley and Jitesh Jivan-Patel (12).

Initial damage was done by Penkridge’s opening bowlers, Manzoor (2-26) and Rizwan Gulzar (2-22) claiming the wickets of Stour’s top order between them. Josh Banks (1), Tarryck Gabriel (4), and Zain Ul Hassan (18) were all sent packing.

Stour began brightly in the field with the wicket of Mohammed Ishtiaq (1) in the second over.

By the time the second wicket had fallen, that of Ishaq Mohammed (35), the opposition score had reached 62 in the 10th over. Mohammed had blasted five fours and a six to frustrate Stour’s attack.

Rana Hassan (51 not out) and Attaq Chishti (8no) made sure of the victory in the 19th over.

Bradley added: “We got on the rough end of the toss and didn’t play well enough. We were the artists of our own downfall.

“We played some poor shots early doors and couldn’t recover.

“There was a feeling of resignation at the end of the game but the challenge now is to lift ourselves and go again.”

Umar Khalid is absent this week but Harshad Patel returns.