COVENTRY & North Warwickshire beat Sutton Coldfield with eight balls remaining to claim a five-wicket win in Warwickshire County Cricket League Premier Division, their second consecutive victory, lifting them to fourth in the division.
Visitors Sutton Coldfield got off to a steady start after being put into bat first, with the opening trio of Mark Guest (11), Rahim Kalil (24) and Lee Thomason (21) bringing them to 78-3 – prior to a partnership of 92 between Dinushka Nawarathnage (45) and Jack Smith (51 not out).
Pum Purewal took a couple of wickets for 22 conceded, whilst Harry Horsley and George Neal both took a wicket each as Sutton Coldfield finished on 171-5.
Coventry were set a target of 172 but initially struggled when losing their opening three batsmen of Manbir Johal (6), Shubhayan Chandra (2) and Vikram Sodhi (12) at 28-3.
But a partnership of 98 between Vaibhav Panwar (58) and the unbeaten William Iles (47 no) helped get the hosts back on track.
Matthew Clements (15) was the fifth Coventry wicket to fall, but Iles and Martyn Glover (8) hit the late runs required to earn victory.
Coventry & North Warwickshire hope to make it three wins in a row when heading to sixth-placed Solihull Municipal on Saturday (noon).