Skipper departs on high

GUERNSEY have made it five 'Muratti' wins out of five. In a rain-affected match at Grainville that saw the Duckworth/Lewis method of calculating a revised total called into action, the visitors claimed a pulsating 15-run victory to ensure that they keep their hands on the HSBC Bank Trophy for the fifth year running.

'This was the best win I've had as Guernsey captain,' said Andy Biggins after his last game leading the island side.

'It was a huge test for us today. Our spinners might not have taken as many wickets as they would have liked, but they bowled so well in the conditions against the best Jersey side I've seen for the last five years.

'It would be easy to say that the rain-affected match turned this game into a lottery, but that was far from the truth. If anything we got the worst of the conditions - having won the toss there was nothing that we could complain about, though.'

Island manager Dave Hearse believes his team have got into the habit of winning the big match.

'Going into the game, I felt we had 50/50 chance of winning it, as Jersey have improved,' he said.

'It shows that we now know how to win games and that showed when Ryan Driver and Matt Hague got going - I think they panicked. We put pressure on them.

'We've got into a good habit of winning and that's all to do with winning the last four.'

There were two defining moments in the greens' victory.

The first was an out-of-this-world catch by Ami Banerjee to get rid of opening bat Steve Carlyon for three.

A full-stretch, one-handed diving effort at slip, was defined by Biggins as 'the best catch I have seen in my life'.

The second was the dismissal of Jersey's dangerman Driver for 29 after he and captain Hague had put together a partnership of 74.

Matt Oliver caught Driver behind off the bowling of Jeremy Frith at a time when Jersey were in control.

Having restricted Guernsey to 178, Jersey were up with the run rate and, if the weather had closed in on them at 71 for 2 after 20 overs, the game would have been theirs.

As it was, they were left chasing 178 in 37 overs according to the Duckworth/Lewis calculations.

'I thought we did well in the field to restrict them to 179,' said Hague afterwards.

'I had a good partnership going with Ryan until he was out. We knew we had to score as many runs as we could in the top four but, after that, we struggled to score.

'Still, fair play to Guernsey, who had to deal with the wet conditions just as we did.

'Like us, they had to cope with a wet ball and they held it together well in the end.

'But this is a good young team. I'd like to think we can bounce back.'