Greens show plenty of courage against Dutch
GUERNSEY have taken a step forwards after the two they took back at the weekend.
Following the disappointment of being whitewashed by Jersey in the Inter-Insular T20I series, the Sarnians showed plenty of fighting spirit last night in opening match against the touring Netherland A squad at the KGV.
In among the rains showers that brought a couple of disruptions to play, the signs were not initially promising for the hosts against a high-class Dutch pace attack which reduced the Greens to 15 for 4 inside the powerplay.
Opening bowler Hidde Overdijk did much of the damage on his way to outstanding figures of 4 for 6 while the pace of Brandon Glover was as quick as anything seen at the KGV in many a year – just ask Guernsey captain Josh Butler who was barely into his attempted stroke when he gloved one through to the keeper.
But a Matt Stokes-led revival managed to get Guernsey up to three figures, which had looked a mile off early on.
Ben Ferbrache, Ollie Newey and David Hooper, who played the shot of the game when he hooked Glover for six, all chipped in with useful contributions, too, but top-scorer Stokes was once again the class act.
Although the Dutch reply got off to a bit of a flier thanks to three boundaries in the opening over from captain Tobias Visee, when he was removed by an outstanding over-the-shoulder catch from Tom Veillard, Guernsey managed to put the brakes on.
That was the first of two wickets for Nic Buckle while Hooper also skittled out a couple and Luke Le Tissier got one to turn past left-hander Adam Wiffen as he danced down the track.
Veillard also bowled well and while he had nothing to show for it in the wickets column, a sharp piece of fielding off his own bowling ran out the non-striker.
In the end, Guernsey did not have quite enough runs to play with and the Netherlands won by four wickets with four balls to spare, but Ash Wright took a lot of positives from the evening.
He added that the three more games over the next two days – two today at 12.30pm and 5pm before tomorrow’s finale at 4pm – are ‘very important’ for his side’s ICC Men’s T20 World Cup Europe Final preparation.
‘We’re playing against some really strong teams, which is good because if it goes well against them it can raise confidence.
‘We’re just trying to get ourselves to click as a batting unit and once we do that we become a very dangerous team.’
More in Wednesday's Guernsey Press.
