PLYMOUTH gave themselves a fighting chance of dodging the drop from the Premier Division when they beat fellow strugglers Torquay by four wickets.
Tom Drake top scored with 59 for Torquay, who made 228 for nine in their 50 overs.
Pakistani run-machine Fazian Riaz clouted the Torquay attack for an unbeaten 134 as Plymouth got over the line with more than three overs to spare.
Plymouth are still in the bottom two, but are only 12 points from safety now after going past Torquay.
On a good day all round for Plymouth, relegation rivals Exeter lost too.
Plymouth have two games left to get out of the bottom two, starting with Exmouth away this Saturday.
Torquay’s situation isn’t great. They are two points behind Plymouth and have games against Paignton and North Devon to play – both of whom are still in the relegation mix.
Opener Cody Gertze made 40 of the first 60 on the board for Torquay, then George Allen (32) and Drake (59) ticked along to 161 for five.
Plymouth’s leading bowlers with three wickets each were Dan Goodey and Joe Hagan-Burt.
Riaz went in after the early demise of Ben Stein and batted through to the end.
His unbeaten 34 contained 14 fours and fours sixes and came off 102 balls. Along the way there were stands of 67 with Jon Varcoe (21) and 66 with Hal Kerton (22).
Riaz has now passed 900 league runs for the season, scoring four hundreds, quite an achievement for a side hardly out of the bottom two all season.
“Faz was a brilliant again - he has been a brilliant addition to our club,” said skipper Stein.
“We created a few partnerships with Faz, which made life so much easier.
“We bowled and fielding pretty well for most of the first innings.
“We could have switched on a little more, but can’t complain after winning.”
