Henry Cullen's brilliant 98 was unable to prevent Kenilworth Wardens falling to an 87-run home defeat at the hands of Barnards Green.

Seven days earlier the Malvern-based visitors had threatened to reach 400 in their demolition of Dorridge and the same batsmen put on a repeat performance at Glasshouse Park.

A home attack missing six bowlers through injury and unavailability had no answers in the later stages of an innings which Leicestershire's George Rhodes launched with a superb 110.

This laid a platform upon which Zain Ul-Hassan – who also passed three figures - and Phil Harris piled a violent fourth-wicket alliance of 138 which left Wardens chasing 363.

When Cullen and Ben Rex (53) were adding 136 this briefly looked possible, but Rhodes and Ul-Hassan then switched their attention to bowling and worked their way through the home line-up.

Some tail-end defiance almost earned Harry Johnson's team a draw, but eventually they were dismissed with an over remaining for 276 to slip to a defeat which their skipper attributed to a poor bowling and fielding display.

"We didn't quite get it right in the field and with the ball," he said, "so weren't able to build any sort of pressure. As a result, Barnards Green built a platform to project themselves to a commanding total.

"By contrast, our batting performance was extremely encouraging and it was great to see the lads playing such a positive brand of cricket and always trying to win.

"The partnership between Ben and Henry was fantastic and in particular It was a pleasure to watch Henry's knock. He's been timing the ball well all year and it was great to see him build the sort of innings we know he is capable of."

After surviving an early life at slip, Rhodes struck 16 fours and a six in his outstanding 133-ball 110 which dominated the early stages of the Barnards Green innings.

With useful support from OG Rogoff (38) this took the visitors to 209 when their third wicket fell.

Thereafter the Worcestershire side launched an astonishing assault which rapidly took the game away from their hosts.

Ul-Hassan's 78-ball 105 included 12 fours and five sixes, but the real carnage came at the other end where Harris found the boundary rope seven times and cleared it on a further five occasions in making 71 from only 26 balls.

The persevering Tommy Rex – who was comfortably the best home bowler on display - claimed four wickets while Amun Bal's earlier new-ball spell also caused a number of problems.

Johnson's breezy 32 showed purposeful intent early in the response but it was a fine partnership between Cullen and Ben Rex which provided hope for home supporters.

Rex marked his first Birmingham Premier League Division Two appearance of the season with a classy half-century, but it was wicket-keeper Cullen who seized the initiative by stroking 14 boundaries and four sixes in an exciting knock.

However, Ul-Hassan (4-67) and Rhodes (3-56) soon completed fabulous all-round displays by halting Wardens in their tracks with a flurry of middle-order wickets.

Last pair Tommy Rex and Bal then battled through six overs and seemed likely to clinch Wardens a draw before paceman Harris fittingly returned to apply the coup de grace.

Looking ahead to next week's round 11 visit to Harborne, Johnson expects a number of players to return to the fray.

"Ali Zaryab will return from a thumb fracture and Jabez Weale is also available," he said.

"But we still expect to be without Josh Baker and George Scrimshaw who has been performing well for Derby in the T20 Blast.

"After a couple of disappointing results we need to see an improvement in our bowling and fielding on what is always a good pitch at Harborne."