Brewood reach the Black Country T20 final

Brewood battled through the fog to defeat Stourbridge and book their place in the final on a dramatic night at the Black Country Twenty20 tournament.

Skipper Cameron Fox (60) hit his third half-century of the week and Zaheer Suliman cracked 61 as Brewood amassed 164-6 batting first.

Stour did their best to chase it down in the increasing gloom.

Audy Alexander's 39, without a helmet in sometimes impossible visibility, has to go down as one of the braver innings in the competition's history.

But they fell short, as Brewood won by 17 runs to top the group and book their place in tomorrow's final where they will play hosts Himley.

Earlier in the evening, Wolverhampton were unable to edge ahead of Himley in the standings on net run rate despite a magnificent run chase.

After a heavy rain shower had curtailed Himley's innings at 142-4 after 13 overs, Wolves were set a revised Duckworth-Lewis target of 155 inside the same distance.

They managed it with four balls to spare thanks to an unbeaten 52 from Umar Amin and Will Nield's swashbuckling 49.

It gave the hosts – who had won their opening two group games and looked virtually assured of a place in Friday's showpiece – an almighty scare in the process.

James Hammond (33) gave their innings early momentum when he carved Himley seamer Jamie Turner for successive sixes over square leg in the third over.

But when Kuldeep Diwan tempted him into one sweep too many and then bowled the big-hitting Imran Jamshed for just one to leave Wolves 61-3 at the midway point, the task looked too steep.

Amin and Nield had other ideas and began the fightback in the eighth over with the latter slamming Himley spinner Mike Jones for three sixes and a four.

Amin, perhaps feeling his partner was having all the fun, promptly continued the carnage in the next over.

Home skipper and part-time bowler Greg Wright could only look on forlornly as he was hit for three fours and two maximums – the second of which bounced out of the hands of a spectator and off the windscreen of a passing car.

When Nield reverse swept Amup Revandkar for six two overs later, Wolves were clear favourites.

With six needed from the final over Wright, perhaps sensing the need to win the net run rate battle, kept his fielders back and invited the batsmen to help themselves to the singles.

Nield was having none of it, reverse sweeping the second ball of the over for a mighty six to seal a seven-wicket win but not – as it transpired after several minutes of frenzied calculations – a straight passage through to the final.

By Matthew Maher