Savident stars in fine victory

GUERNSEY'S cricketers have excelled in their first international challenge. In a match that was marked by a number of super catches by both sides, they beat a young Scottish Academy side by four wickets.

Chasing a modest 166 runs at a picturesque Grange ground, batting overshadowed by Edinburgh Castle, their challenge was boosted by a powerful 71 from Lee Savident.

Guernsey's new head coach Jack Birkenshaw was pleased with his team's first step into international cricket.

'We did really well', said the former Leicestershire coach.

'It was a good all-round performance against a good all-round side.

'Our fielding could have been a bit sharper and our bowling a bit tighter, but it was a cold day and it was our first time out.

'There were some good individual performances, Frith bowled well and Lee batted well. What a talent.'

The 28-year-old is now back in the green of Guernsey after 11 years away due to his professional career with Hampshire.

It was Rovers old and new as Savident opened the batting with his former team's current captain Tim Duke.

Duke looked out of sorts as he played and missed at a couple pitched up deliveries from seamer Craig Anderson.

After relieving the pressure with a square cut for his first four, he pushed at one that held its line from the big seamer and was caught behind.

This brought Ami Banerjee to the crease and he quickly struck up a good partnership with Savident, the little Indian playing the anchor role while his partner bludgeoned the attack.

He looked extremely strong when going onto the front foot to unleash big drives through the covers.

In the early twenties he mis-hit one of these drives and the ball went to extra cover where an easy chance was put down by Tyler Buchan.

With the score ticking over nicely, off spinner Zesshan Bashir was brought into the pack and Savident took an immediate liking to him, hitting two fours and a six in his first over. The six was a delightful straight drive that landed 12 yards beyond the boundary.

He went to his 50 with another cover drive that went for four and a hundred looked on the cards.

This was not to be as, when on 71, he swept one of Steven Gilmour's off-spin balls and was smartly caught square leg by Robert Kannon.

Savident walked off in disbelief as his and Banerjee's partnership generated 105 runs.

The Optimists player was the next to go as Sean Weeraratna ran him out.

His new partner Jeremy Frith touched the ball into the leg side and with Banerjee looking for a run, he was stopped by Frith and he dived back into the crease as the ball hit the stumps. He looked to be in but the umpire thought otherwise.

With Frith playing out a patient knock, wickets regularly fell at the other end as Guernsey started to make a meal of things.

Richard Veillard was superbly caught and bowled by Gilmour with a leaping one-handed catch high to his right.

Andy Biggins was also caught and bowled by Gilmour and Divan van den Heever was caught at mid off from a ball from Anderson that should have been called a no ball for being over chest height. It was a terrible decision.

Andre Van Rooyen finished the game shortly afterwards when he hit a short ball from Gilmour over mid wicket for the one run necessary for victory.

Earlier in the day, Scottish Academy got off to a bad start as Stuart Coetzer was well caught by Frith at gully off van den Heever's left arm pace.

They looked to be posting a big total as they were 53 for 2 off 15 overs and their captain Gilmour was stroking the ball nicely around the park.

Guernsey were bowling well in parts on a good batting wicket but they were guilty of conceding too many extras with wides and no balls.

The introduction of Gary Rich's off spin after the drinks break at 25 overs proved crucial as he took three wickets including Gilmour's. He was bowled through the gate as he went for an expansive cover drive.

Rich's second wicket was also a piece of super cricket as Omer Hussain latched onto a short ball from the spinner and he smashed the ball that was going level to the ground and would have gone for six had Savident not been on the boundary.

He coolly grabbed the ball and it was certainly the catch of the day in a match that had a number of fine ones.

Frith came on at the other end and he and Rich bowled tightly and they restricted the flow with regular wickets.

In the end the home side's score of 166 was too small and their captain Gilmour recognised this.

'We knew that 150 would have been a challenging score', the 23-year-old said. 'We didn't get any partnerships going. It was very disappointing.'