AVONCROFT lost their first home game of the Worcestershire County League Division Three campaign by 51 runs to a well-drilled Alvechurch outfit.
Skipper Mark Whitehead put the visitors into bat on a cloudy and overcast afternoon hoping to do some early damage on a track that had had some overnight moisture.
However, it took until Alvechurch reached 88 for the first wicket of Adam Markham-Jones (62) to fall before pushing to 122-4 at the mid-point.
But a solid 67 from Dan Wolstencroft and valuable runs from tail batsmen of Saurabh Sata (13) and Devavrat Desai (20) helped push the score to 255 all out after 46.1 overs.
In response Croft were left reeling from a poor start as they quickly slumped to 83-6 as the hosts looked dead and buried.
However, skipper Whitehead (61) was not prepared to accept defeat as his 64-run partnership with James Downing (13) guided Croft to 147-7.
Jonathan Hunter (16 no) and Joe Ingle (10) also chipped in with runs but it was not enough as the hosts were sent back to the pavilion for 204 all out.
Desai was star of the show with the ball as took five wickets for 52 runs from his eight overs.
Defeat leaves Croft third-from-bottom and they will hope to get their first win of the season when they travel to Astwood Bank Thirds on Saturday.
