STOURBRIDGE Social suffered an agonising defeat at Himley in Worcester League Division Three.

After skipper Richard Milner won the toss and chose to bowl first, Waqas Ahmed quickly made the breakthrough when he had McLeod Cox trapped lbw for three.

Andy Jones (23) and Thomas Wall (40) built a patient partnership but Social were always in charge of the run-rate and despite 44 from Maz Shah, the hosts were restricted to 153-9 from 50 overs.

Social found themselves in all kinds of trouble at the start of their reply as they slumped to 27-4 in 15 overs.

But Iqbal Mussadiq and Dan Wilkes launched a counter-attack which quickly swung the momentum back in their favour.

Wilkes was in particularly brutal form, hitting five sixes on his way to a rapid 61.

When Mussadiq fell for 54, the damage appeared to have been done with Social needing just 14 runs to win with five wickets remaining.

But disaster struck as Mohammad Tarbassan returned to the attack and ripped through the lower order, taking his match figures to 6-29 as Social were bowled out for 150 — four runs short of the target.

They will look get back to winning ways this weekend when they welcome Harvington to Norwood Road.