RUGBY CC were on the wrong side of yet another close finish as they fell to a two-wicket defeat against relegation-threatened Moseley Ashfield in the Warwickshire Premier Division.
Rugby won the toss and elected to bat only to lose both openers cheaply to slip to 15-2 before Wes Landsdale (44) and Jeevan Barhey (50) shared a 96-run third-wicket stand.
However, the pair were dismissed in quick succession with only Owen Edwards (20), Kyle Taylor (29) and Kasir Shah (19) reaching double figures as Rugby limped to a final score of 211-8 from their 50 overs.
In reply, Moseley put on 50 runs for their first wicket as opener Hayden Evans (65) scored freely before he was joined by Masharraf Shahzad (28) in a 47-run second-wicket stand.
However, Edwards (2-33) sparked Rugby into life with the wicket of Evans which left Moseley on 124-3 before Seth Westley (2-49) struck twice in the same over to leave their opponents on 135-6.
Shah Waqas (60) turned the game back in Moseley’s favour with an excellent 40-ball knock and, despite falling to Edwards late on, his innings would ultimately guide the visitors to victory with seven balls and two wickets to spare.
In Division Five, Rugby’s 2nd XI were thrashed in their top of the table clash against leaders Sutton Coldfield as they lost by 187 runs.
Just six points separated the two teams at the start of play with the gap now extended to 23 points to leave Rugby’s title chances all but over.
Rugby’s decision to bowl first backfired as Sutton racked up 276-7 with the bulk of the runs coming in a 171-run fourth-wicket partnership between Oliver Gray-Nimmo (95) and Shailan Srikanthan (65).
Despite a positive start in reply, courtesy of Charlie Robards (25), Sutton skittled Rugby for just 89 in 23 overs with Joe Bramley (17) and James Nuttall (13) the only other batters to reach double figures.
Rugby remain nine points clear of promotion rivals Coventry WIW with two matches left to play.
Elsewhere, Rugby’s 3rd XI celebrated promotion with a dominant performance against Massey Ferguson to come away with 17 points in a winning draw in their final match of the season.
Rugby were put into bat first as opener Shreyas Honnalli (75) set the tone and shared a 72-run second-wicket partnership with Keval Rathod (38) before Jon Sage (46), Dan Pinks (36 not out) and Aravind Ram (35) propelled their side to 271-5 from their 45 overs.
Massey never looked like challenging Rugby’s total as Prasad Hardare (51) top scored to secure a losing draw after finishing on 192-7 with Tom Rigby (2-24) and Rubans (2-38) taking two wickets apiece.
Lastly, in Division Nine South Central, Rugby’s 4th XI finished their season with a winning draw against Lapworth after posting a mammoth 365-5.
Ram Kumar Singh (75) and Advay Pophali (30) combined for a 109-run opening stand before Sajjad Hussain added an aggressive 35.
And Tom Binding (94) and skipper Jag Barhey (100 not out) added 149 runs for the fourth wicket with the latter scoring 13 fours and a six in a sublime innings which brought up his second century for the club.
Lapworth were well-placed to score a big total of their own at 102-2 only to lose six wickets without adding a single run to their total in an extraordinary spell of bowling as they slumped to 102-7.
Adam Milsom (3-13) and Singh (3-19) shone with the ball as Lapworth hung on to draw after closing on 138-9.
