BELOW-PAR Bromsgrove suffered a third straight defeat when they were blitzed by eight wickets against bottom side Old Hill in Birmingham League Division One.

Bromsgrove skipper Mark Evenson admitted: “I still can’t put my finger on what went wrong. We scored a decent enough total after being put into bat on a used wicket.

“But Old Hill just went for it when they replied and it just came off because I didn’t think we bowled that badly.”

Bromsgrove’s preparations where hit when Ashley Newfield pulled out late through injury, while Ben Tegg went down with tonsillitis Evenson drafted in experienced batsman Matt Dalloway and Alistair Hickman, both of whom played key roles in supporting Alexei Kervezee (107 off 95 balls).

Dalloway (26) kept him company while Hickman finished on 32 not out as Bromsgrove posted a challenging target of 233-8 off five overs.

Evenson said: “I spoke to their skipper Danny Cox during the interval who felt we’d got too many runs for them to chase down.

“But they came out really positive and put bat to ball, to the point that by the 37th over, we were shaking hands.”

Jimmy Howell (93) and India overseas player Monil Patel (96 not out) did most of the damage as Old Hill raced to a winning 234-2.

Evenson added: “We’re still not clicking as a side this season. We either bat well, or bowl well, but can’t seem to put both together.

“I’m also aware we’re relying too heavily on Alexei to score the runs and we need other batsmen to start hitting form.

“Fortunately for us, Alexei hasn’t been featuring in Worcestershire’s First XI recently, even though he did score 140 for the Seconds in midweek.

“Without him, it would leave a huge dent in our batting line-up.”

Bromsgrove travel to Moseley-based side Attock this Saturday (12pm start).