PACE ace Jade Richter took seven wickets as Stourbridge boosted their promotion hopes with a narrow victory over Sentinel.

Stour bagged a one-wicket win over their fellow title hopefuls last Saturday to stay second in Division Three of the Birmingham and District League.

It was South African Richter that set up the success as he powered through the Sentinel line-up. The visitors to the War Memorial Ground were bowled out for 135 in the 37th over.

However, it wasn't all plain sailing for the home side as they found batting just as tricky.

Having lost the opener Harshad Patel for a duck in the first over‎ they quickly fell to 87-7.

Still 48 runs adrift, brothers Mikesh and Jitesh Jivan-Patel took the score from 90 for 8 to 121 for 9 when Mikesh was judged lbw for 5 off 48 deliveries falling to Shane Guilt. Suddenly Stour were in trouble as last man Feraz Irfan walked to the crease with his side still requiring 15 more runs for victory.

Jitesh Jivan-Patel took as much of the strike as he could whilst Irfan blocked out 18 balls not out without scoring.

The opportunistic Jivan-Patel willingly took singles whenever he could to take his own score to 32 not out off 73 balls while managing to nurse his side to the win.

Stourbridge skipper Josh Banks said: "It was a fantastic win for us.

"We bowled well but then batted poorly but still did enough to get over the line, which was the important thing. It could prove a big win in the grand scheme of things."

Banks was also quick to praise the massive contribution of Richter, adding: "He bowled brilliantly. It was his best performance of the season. He has been bowling well but finally got his rewards."

Stour will look to continue their push when they host Handsworth this Saturday (noon start).

"The key now is to try and keep the momentum going," added the captain.

"It's a game we want to win but we recently lost to Worcester Nomads when we were going well so we must make sure we're at our best."

Stour have no injury concerns heading into the weekend.