ZAIN Ul-Hassan's five-for saw Barnards Green thrash Himley by over 200 runs as the Malvern-based side continued their title charge up the table.

Green were put into bat and a half century from Ryan Tongue (50) and 83 from Phil Harris, as well as decent contributions from Jerome Taylor (33) and Ul-Hassan (41), saw them post 278 from their 55 overs.

It was always going to be a big ask and it proved to be such for Himley, who came up well short as Ul-Hassan (5-17) and Harris (4-13) did the damage.

The victory means Green stay on the tail of second placed Harborne in the Birmingham League Premier Two table and still in touch with league leaders Wolverhampton. 

Himley Captain Ollie Westbury won the toss and surprisingly chose to field first on a hot afternoon at North End Lane. 

Rehaan Edavalath fell first, trapped lbw for 9 by James Lunn. 

This brought George Rhodes in to join Ryan Tongue and they took the score to 49 before Rhodes (20) fell lbw to Jamie Turner

Ul-Hassan came in at 4 before Tongue brought up his 50 with a boundary, but the skipper soon fell lbw to Graeme White.

Harris joined Ul-Hassan with the score on 87-3 in the 26th over and the former became the dominant partner, hitting 30 in their 50 partnership. 

The score passed 150 in the 39th over and in the same over, Ul-Hassan was dropped by keeper Elliot Small.

Harris hit a couple of giant sixes to reach his half-century as the Green run rate climbed and took the score past 200 in the 47th over. 

The partnership of 128 was broken when Ul-Hassan holed out to Westbury for 41, bringing Jerome Taylor to the crease.

The West Indies man found his groove and hit some big shots before Harris fell on 83 when caught.

Ollie Halion came and went for 0 bowled by Jamie Lunn but Taylor hit another couple of maximums before being caught by Ben Robinson off Graeme White.

Ollie Rogoff (14no) and Josh Blunt (9no) took the Green to 278-6 off their 55 overs.

The Himley reply started with a couple of boundaries but  11-0 became 33-3 as Ul-Hassan dismissed both openers. First, Ollie Westbury was caught by Halion for 4 then Bilal Hussain was caught by Harris for 14.

Harris chipped in with the third – clean bowling Ollie Cox for 10 and at this point, both bowlers were virtually unplayable. 

Four wickets then fell with the score on 41. Harris struck twice as Elliot Small was caught for 1 and Jeevan Klair was bowled without scoring. 

Ul-Hassan trapped Ollie Walker lbw for 9 and had Graeme White caught behind for 0 and he had his fifth wicket when Ollie Baker was caught and bowled for 1.

Harris took his fourth when he bowled Jamie Turner for 4 but bar Lunn (21no) hitting some boundaries to take the score to 72, Rhodes had Ben Robinson stumped by Brewer for a duck to seal victory.