HAKEEM Abdullah bagged three wickets and there were two each for Imran Ali Pasha and Craig Donohue as Plympton picked up a 30-run  win over Hatherleigh.

Plympton were only just clear of the A Division drop zone on Saturday morning and starting to feel a bit nervous.

By beating Hatherleigh they hoisted themselves 17 points clear of the bottom two, and plonked their beaten opponents further behind.

Plympton aren’t out of the wood yet and still have to sort out their batting.

Opener Josh Mailling ground out 59 at the top of the order and kept going until he was sixth out at 99.

No one else in the top six made more than nine and without Imran’s contribution down the order Plympton would have been in trouble.

Imran went in at 47 for five in the 13th over and batted through to the 49th.

Imran’s stands of 52 with Mailling, 26 with Abdullah (18) and 42 with Donohue (10) proved crucial in the grand scheme of things.

Pick of the bowlers for Hatherleigh were spinner Mark Lake (2-27) and seamer Sean Letheren (2-36). Chris Jelley had three for 28 but only bowled five overs.

Hatherleigh lost Jack Cherrington in Imran’s first over after tea and free-scoring Matt Taylor with the score on 29.

Jelly (19), Gareth Tidball (26) and Charlie Nielson (30) made dent in the target before Abdullah took three wickets in ten balls to take out the middle order.

Ninety-four for three had deteriorated to 108 for six the 122 for seven when Donohue trapped Ryan Davies lbw.

Rob Cockwill put up a fight, but Ryan Skinner bowled him for 24 and within eight balls Hatherleigh were all out for 148.

Winning captain Dan Robotham was quick to share the praise around after the match.

“Josh was brilliant with the bat - looked as good as I've seen him play before and showed great maturity with his innings given the wickets that fell down the other end so quickly.

“Imran batted really well for his 50, supported well by Craig Donohue who held up an end to help get through the overs and get us up to a decent total.

“We fielded really well and held all our catches which was very pleasing.

“All bowlers bowled nicely but ‘Big H” was the stand-out

“We are starting to show signs of being the team we know we are.”