Worcestershire’s Academy are through to the final of the Birmingham Premier League Graham Williamson Trophy after defeating home side Ombersley CC by 74 runs today.
Excellent contributions with the bat by Ismael Mohammed and Rehaan Edavalath enabled the Academy to post a challenging target of 173.
A superb performance with the new ball by Cameron Jones and Reeve Evitts then destroyed Ombersley’s hopes, and they were bowled out for 98 in 28.1 overs.
It was a third scalp for the Academy after defeating Halesowen and holders Barnt Green in the previous rounds.
In the final, they will meet Smethwick who defeated Kidderminster in the other semi-final.
The Academy lost two early wickets after skipper Joe Stanley elected to bat but then Mohammed and Edavalath joined forces to put on 71 for the third wicket in 16.1 overs.
Mohammed was within a single of a half century when he was run out by Worcestershire CCC batter, Taylor Cornall, at 87-2.
He had faced 72 balls and hit six boundaries.
Edavalath was dismissed 13 runs later, having made 41 off 51 balls with a six and four fours, when he was bowled by former Worcestershire paceman, Gareth Andrew.
There were then useful contributions from Henry Cullen (20) and Reeve Evitts (23) but the last six wickets fell for 42 runs as the Academy were bowled out for 172 in 39.2 overs.
Evitts and Jones then shared the new ball and destroyed the Ombersley top order in reducing them to 20-5.
Jones picked up the prized wickets of Cornall (5) and Andrew (0) during a superb opening spell of 5-0-14-3.
Evitts was equally effective, and his first burst produced figures of 5-1-15-2.
There was some resistance provided by David Brazier (20) and Ben Griffin (38) during a sixth-wicket stand of 50.
But then Brazier was run out by Jack Home, and Griffin went lbw to Stanley.
Josh Dickenson chipped in with two wickets before Ben Clarke picked up the final wicket with his second delivery to seal a memorable win.
Evitts ended with 8-1-23-2, Jones 5-0-14-3, Dickenson 3-1-5-2 and Stanley 6-0-26-1.
