GOING into a game against the runaway league-leaders who boast a former Pakistan international among their ranks, any local cricketer could be forgiven for not being full of confidence.

However, Avoncroft's David James simply took this challenge in his stride and put in an excellent all-round performance that very nearly led his team to an unlikely victory.

Playing Stourbridge, who are 56 points clear at the top of Crusader Worcestershire League division two, struggling Avoncroft were set 177 to win in a rain-affected match.

The key wicket was Humayun Farhat -- brother of Imran Farhat, who is set to open the batting for Pakistan in today's test match against England.

Humayun, who has played five Tests and one One-Day International, was caught behind early on and James sliced through the remaining batsmen to claim 6-77.

All-rounder James then stroked 77 not out as Avoncroft came just 12 runs short of winning -- an effort plenty good enough for him to be named as our Cricketer of the Week.

He said: "We were playing Stourbridge, who are top of the league, so we were expecting to get beaten quite convincingly.

"But we got their overseas player Farhat out early on and we were able to restrict them to 176-9. I used to bowl quickly, but these days I just try to bowl wicket-to-wicket using swing and off-cutters.

"Because of the rain, the game was reduced to 34 overs per side, so we were quite pleased to keep them to 176-9. I bowled 17 overs from the one end and picked up 6-77.

"I have now taken 40 wickets this season and I took 50 last year, which was a record for division three.

"I batted at number four, but was in quite soon because Farhat was bowling pretty sharp and we were 30-2. We concentrated on getting past 134, which was the losing draw target, and once we'd done that we tried to have a go at winning the game, but we ended up 12 runs short.

"My batting was a mixture of trying to put away the bad balls as well as staying in to protect the rest of the batsmen and try and make sure we weren't all out."

To round off an impressive week, James was on form on Monday when Avoncroft took on the touring Surrey Optimists team.

Despite the visitors posting 291 in 42 overs, Avoncroft reached their target with four balls to spare and James helped himself to a match-winning 127.

James wins a £30 voucher to be spent at the Fearnley Factory Shop in Worcester.