Warr's gallant effort not quite enough

JERSEY'S superior discipline shone through at the KGV yesterday as the visitors retained the under-21 inter-insular trophy by 27 runs. Guernsey fought gallantly and there were a couple of notable performances, particularly from all-rounder James Warr who was the Sarnian star on the day, but there was not quite the strength in depth that the Caesareans could boast and it proved to be crucial.

After losing the toss, the home side had their opponents on the rack early on, with four wickets in the opening 13 overs, including both of next week's full caps, Peter Gough and Andrew Dewhurst.

Warr had made the initial breakthrough as Rohan Mohanty was caught behind looking to push forward and Warwick Green followed that in the next over with the big wicket of Dewhurst who was trapped leg-before.

The young Zimbabwean added the scalp of Mark Whitsey, who played on, in the last over of his impressive opening spell and Guernsey were on cloud nine when his replacement, Chris van Vliet, removed Peter Gough two overs later.

It was a poor delivery but the Jersey skipper miscued his attempted pull shot to Blane Queripel at mid-off and Guernsey were ecstatic.

But then a partnership of 153 between Jonny Gough and Danny Bertram turned the game on its head.

Both were very cautious early on with Gough scoring just seven of his first 48 balls until he hit his first boundary but they did exactly what was required and once settled, they batted beautifully.

Gough was the more eye-catching with his strokes all around the wicket and he reached 50 from 88 balls but Bertram's calm contribution was just as important and he also reached a deserved half-century.

He fell as his side attempted to force the pace with five overs to go and Gough was to follow in the next, three runs agonisingly short of a hundred but his 97 from 120 balls was later to earn him the match-of-the-match award. He hit 14 fours.

Tom Minty added a quickfire 24 at the death to push Jersey's total up to 229 for eight, which could have been more if Warr had not produced a fine spell at the end to finish with four for 36.

He and Queripel then gave Guernsey's reply a solid start, adding 28 before the latter was well caught by Peter Gough diving forward at extra cover.

Luke Gallienne did not last long, but the big partnership was going to be that between Warr and Divan van den Heever.

They were going along nicely as well, adding 35 for the third wicket with the skipper timing the ball excellently for his 24, until a sudden rush of blood saw him try to hit Danny Blasco out the ground and succeed only in giving Whitsey a catch at long-off.

From 64 for two, Guernsey soon found themselves at 78 for six with Blasco adding two more to his tally and Jonny Gough chipping in with one.

Warr and van Vliet revived Sarnian hopes with a well-constructed seventh-wicket stand of 85 during which time the opener brought up his 50, but just when a tense finale looked on the cards, Dewhurst struck two huge blows.

Van Vliet miscued to mid-off looking to hit over the top and two balls later Warr was brilliantly caught by Blasco, one-handed diving to his left at backward point for 62.

That was the game for Jersey although Guernsey kept at it and finished on a respectable 204 for nine.

There are lots of positives to take from the game,' said Guernsey U-21s manager Dave Nussbaumer.

'Our fielding was superb although we possibly lost our way a bit in their innings, which can happen. Really, when we needed to turn the screw, we didn't.

'When we batted, the big turning point was when Divan got out because he was batting beautifully, although we still had a chance with James and Chris together but all credit to Jersey's guys who bowled good line and length.

'Special praise should go to James Warr because our gameplan was to bat around him and he did his job excellently and he bowled very well also.'

Jersey manager Chris Minty paid tribute to the work of Jonny Gough and Bertram after the early problems.

'They rebuilt the innings very well. We do bat a long way down,' he said.

'I would have settled for 229 at the start although on this pitch we were probably looking at 240 to 250.

'Then our fielding was excellent and Peter Gough captaincy was outstanding.'