A SUPERB showing from Ryan Tongue fired Barnards Green to victory at Pershore in the T20 Challenge Cup.

Tongue struck an unbeaten century before registering four wickets as Green won by 43 runs to progress to the third round of the competition.

He and Phil Harris opened the batting for Green and scored 54 off the opening five overs.

Harris fell for 38 before Olly Swift (8) and Dannie Rees (8) were dismissed but thanks to Tongue Green pushed the score beyond the 150 mark.

Will Dovey (3) and Tom Banks (0) were stumped as Green finished their 20 overs on 186-6 with Pershore ruing their 23 wides.

Tongue ended with 101 not out off just 66 balls including 12 fours and three sixes.

In reply the Pershore innings could not have started any worse as Liam Ridings was stumped off a wide first ball from Tongue.

He struck again, clean bowling Chris Miles (18) while Ben Bromage, making his first-team debut, took three wickets in as many overs to take out Pershore’s middle order.

Tongue then made an immediate impact on his return to the attack as Ridings holed out to Olly Swift (33) and Andrew Wilks (28) was bowled.

Pershore had four overs to get 72 with just three wickets in hand.

Harris bowled Alex Clasen (16) before Tongue (4-24) topped off a fine day with a great catch to dismiss Tom Pilling (3) off Monzur Ahmed. Stephen Miles remained 15 not out as Pershore ended with 143-9.

Meanwhile, Green progressed to the quarter-final of the Grays County Cup with a home win over Bromsgrove.

Harris and Tongue set off at a rapid rate, racing to 71 before a slight hesitation in taking a single led to Harris being run out for 45.

But Green then added just 54 runs as they were bowled out for 125 in the 19th over.

Josh Blunt (2-15) and Andy Ford (1-12) bowled accurately as Bromsgrove lost wickets in reply and needed 35 off the final three overs at 91-6.

It was clear their only chances rested with Jayden Levitt who hit another maximum to take the score past 100. But next ball he was caught by Swift at deep mid-wicket as he finished on 65.

Harris ended Bromsgrove’s hopes with two wickets in two balls as they finished 12 runs short of victory on 114-9.