Banerjee stunner in fifth win in a row

RAIN and lots of it. A constant light drizzle plagued Saturday's HSBC Bank inter-insular at Grainville.

It stopped the match for more than an hour and the subsequent reduction in the number of overs from 50 to 41 saw the Duckworth/Lewis method used for the first time in the annual fixture.

But what the rain did not do was dampen the scintillating cricket as the more than 200 travelling Guernsey fans, who easily outnumbered the Jersey supporters, were celebrating their team's 15-run victory.

It was the fifth year on the trot that the Sarnians have won the big match.

The days when Jersey held the trophy for 10 years seem a distant memory now.

After winning the toss, Guernsey captain Andy Biggins did not hesitate in deciding to bat on a hard wicket that looked like a good batting strip. He may have been regretting his decision as he watched two quick wickets go down.

Openers Matt Oliver and Jeremy Frith both fell to Chris Jones' medium pace with lazy shots as Guernsey slumped to 18 for two.

Ami Banerjee and Justin Meades proceeded to take Guernsey forward.

But this was halted when Meades, on the pull, was well caught by Johnny Gough at midwicket off his twin brother Peter's off spin. A big score had looked on the cards for the burly Aussie.

Guernsey stalwart Stuart Le Prevost carried on where Meades had left off before rain forced the players off the pitch for more than an hour.

When they went back on, Le Prevost went for 17, but that brought South African powerhouse GH Smit to the crease, much to the delight of the loud Guernsey support.

He did not disappoint as he went about smashing a quickfire 38, including a massive six, before a clever slower ball by Ryan Driver took care of him as the overs were counting down.

A super little cameo from Tim Duke, who hit three fours on the bounce off Driver, saw the visitors post a total of 179 for 7.

The end of the innings saw the Duckworth/Lewis charts come out and after the calculations, Jersey had 37 overs to reach 178.

After another delay as the heavens opened, the Caesareans got off a bad start with both openers, Peter Gough and Steve Carlyon, going cheaply to Duke.

Carlyon's dismissal will go down in inter-insular folklore. Banerjee's one-handed diving catch at slip was one of the best that those present would have ever seen.

He was parallel to the ground and at full stretch when he held onto a ball that was travelling fast.

It was an open mouth moment and Carlyon could not believe what he had just seen.

But Guernsey's euphoria slowly eased as Jersey's best two batsmen, Driver and Matt Hague, started to take the match away from them.

Hague survived an early scare when going for a quick single. Biggins clattered the stumps with a direct hit, but Jane Carpenter, the first woman umpire to officiate in the inter-insular, decided the Australian had made his ground, much to the dismay of the Guernsey fielders.

Driver and Hague took the Jersey score passed 100 from 23 overs. If play had been called off then Jersey would been the winners according to Duckworth/Lewis.

A change of bowling from the pavilion end did the trick for the greens as Jeremy Frith, after conceding 10 runs in his first over, got rid of Driver for 29, caught behind by Oliver.

And with fellow spinner Gary Rich toiling away at the other end, Guernsey came back into it.

Frith had Hague out for 54 as Meades pulled off a great diving low catch and he also got Jones quickly, smartly stumped by Oliver.

Andy Dewhurst came out and tried to put the Sarnians to the sword, clubbing the ball to the boundary before he was out to Banerjee for a quickfire 14.

With the tension rising, Tom Minty came out at 139 for seven and hit three boundaries to give Guernsey serious jitters before he went for 16 bowled by Banerjee.

It was all over for Jersey when man-of-the-match Banerjee clean-bowled Nigel Crocker first ball to leave them on 163.