Captain-keeper Flynn Gunston hit a rapid unbeaten half century as Worcestershire Academy (Under-18s) overcame Shropshire by seven wickets to reach the third round of the ECB County Plate competition at Barnt Green CC.
Gunston came to the wicket at 97-3 in pursuit of a 179 target and raced to 54 not out off just 33 balls with three sixes and five fours.
He added an unbroken 84 with Daniel Lategan who also scored freely in making 40 not out from 48 balls with one maximum and four boundaries.
Worcestershire, who were runners-up last summer, reached their target in just 28.3 overs.
Shropshire had opted to bat on winning the toss and totalled 178 all out in 48 overs.
Wickets fell at regular intervals with Ben Clements, who took the new ball, having fine figures of 9-0-34-3.
Ciaran Baker-Smith produced an excellent spell of 10-0-26-3 with Ollie Smith (1-36), Chris Ellison (1-35) and Charlie Egerton (1-24) the other wicket-takers.
The last two wickets added 60 from 118-8 but Worcestershire quickly had momentum with the bat.
Lucas Ingram struck a run a ball 30 and Louis Hursthouse 36 from 47 deliveries before the decisive Gunston-Lategan partnership.
Elsewhere, Worcestershire keeper-batter, Henry Cullen, scored 30 off 64 balls for Herefordshire (143-3) against Wales (248 all out) on day one of a National Counties Western Division Two match at Eastnor.
And Worcestershire Academy captain, Ben Clarke who was making his Herefordshire debut, picked up two catches and bowled eight overs for 26 runs.
