AN undefeated 96 from Anthony James kept Aston Ingham’s Gloucestershire County League title hopes alive in a narrow single wicket win at Westbury.

The home side set a target of 150 and Aston had to recover from 51-8 as Devin Rogers took four wickets and Ed Edginton three.

Westbury made a strong start with openers Will Hargreaves and Alex Wyman putting on 58 for the first wicket.

Aston made the breakthrough when Dharzekanth Yoganadan caught Hargreaves off the bowling of Dan Smith with the third ball of the eighteenth over. Hargreaves had scored fifteen with two fours.

Six overs later, Smith struck twice to take Westbury to 81-3 with Wyman bowled for 44, which included six fours with the score on 77.

Dan Jarvis went with the last ball of the over when he was caught by Hugh Smith with a single boundary to his name.

Devin Rogers and Henry Watkinson put Westbury back on course with 36 for the fourth wicket but they went in quick succession.

Rogers was the first to go with the score on 117 when he returned the last but one delivery of the 31st over to bowler James Wagstaff. He had scored 17 with a brace of boundaries.

Five balls later Watkinson was bowled by Gus Carini Roberts with just two runs added to the total His 21 included a six a two fours.

The score had moved onto 125 when Francis Stirrup became the sixth Westbury wicket to fall. He was caught leg before by Wagstaff in the 35th over having scored six.

Wagstaff struck again with the first ball of the 37th over when Daniel Anderson was caught by Carini-Roberts for two to leave the home side on 128-7.

Gregory Artus and Tom Landon added 19 for the eighth wicket but Westbury lost their last three men for two runs.

Artus was bowled by Anthony James for 10 and Landon went for the same score after being stumped by wicketkeeper Josh Loade in the following over to make it 149-9.

The innings closed when Ed Edginton was bowled by Anthony James with the first ball of the 41st over.

Aston had reached 35 when Oliver Henson was caught lbw at the start of the 10th over for 15 including three fours.

Edginton claimed a second wicket when he bowled Carini-Roberts for a single in the 12th over to make it 37-2.

The visitors then lost two wickets without moving the scoreboard as Yoganadan was caught by Jarvis off the bowling of Rogers to make it 37-3 in the 13th .

Following a maiden by Edginton, Rogers claimed his second wicket when Angus Bartlett was caught by Wyman for a duck in the 15th.

Jarvis took another catch off the bowling of Rogers to dismiss Loade to make it 50-5.

The visitors’ woes continued as first Frankie Gooding and then Hugh Smith went – Gooding to a Francis Stirrup catch off Rogers and Smith caught by Landon off Edginton – to leave them on 51-7.

When Dan Smith was bowled by Landon, Aston were still 88 short of the target with eight wickets down.

Toby O’Neill was run out by Alex Wyman with the score on 103 which left James and skipper Wagstaff needing to find 47 runs for victory.

Unsurprisingly, Wagstaff played support for the free-scoring James scoring only one of those runs as Aston posted a nerve-wracking one wicket win.

Going into Saturday’s last round of matches, Aston already have the points in the bag for promotion to the West of England Premier and need to make five more points than leader Hawkesbury Upton to take the title.