Dutch defeats give Greens starting block to improve
GUERNSEY have seen first-hand the level they need to be striving for ahead of the World T20 Qualifiers at the end of the summer.
The island squad, albeit one missing some regulars, suffered three defeats at the hands of a strong Netherlands A side at the KGV and coach Ash Wright admitted that his team were ‘nowhere near the races’, but added that it was an important run-out.
‘It felt very “pre-seasony” for us, we’ve not had a great build-up – the weather’s not been good and we’ve struggled with the facilities a bit more in the winter – but they’re excuses for it.
‘The first two games were just so uncharacteristic of us and the opposition were just far better.
‘The last game we bowled and fielded a lot better – a bit more like we can do – but we are just off the pace. We’ve got everything there we need for a team, we’ve just got to get the basics right and work on our skills.
‘As a positive, it’s given us that starting block to realise that, right, this is what we need to do to get better, and it’s definitely given us some stuff to do to get better.’
Saturday’s opening game resulted in an eight-wicket defeat for the hosts and, after Sunday’s washout, the Dutch went on to win Monday’s two games by 76 and 32 runs respectively.
‘We have got a few players to come back, but I still think with the team we had out, we should have done better.
‘The Netherlands were a very good team, you could see that. They were very well drilled, they’ve played a bit more cricket up to this point, but that’s excuses – we should have been better and we are going to do everything we can do to be better.’
On the plus side, Wright pointed to the excellent performance of Jordon Martel in the final match, saying ‘it’s brilliant to have him back because he’s not been in for a while’, as one major positive along with Lucas Barker’s batting, particularly in the first game, in which he made the top score for Guernsey across all three matches with 42.
‘I think we’ve got everything there we need for a T20 team, we just need to get these basics right and build on them.
‘Next games we’ve got are against Sussex [at the start of July] – we play the academy and the second team in two T20s – so the guys have now got to get back to club cricket and make sure they take that seriously and really start kicking on.
‘Like I say, there are positives, but there is a lot of work to do.’
Guernsey will play in the ICC World T20 Europe Qualifiers in the Netherlands from 29 August and 3 September. They are in Group C with Czech Republic, Gibraltar, Israel, Norway and Sweden. The top two after the round-robin matches progress to the Regional Finals, by which time those matches will be granted full International T20 status.