Mixed day in sun for Griffins

After following up their day one victory over Group B top seeds Brigade from Ireland with a huge 88-run win against Zagreb Sokol of Croatia yesterday morning at the Cartama Oval in Malaga to make it two wins from two, Luke Le Tissier’s side then suffered the first setback of their European Cricket League campaign after lunch as they suffered a sobering eight-wicket defeat at the hands of Norwegian champions Bjorvika.

Such is the bish-bash-bosh nature of the shortest format of the game that the whole Griffins batting line-up fell four runs short of their skipper’s own individual tally from one match to another.

The Guernsey champions seem to enjoy the early-morning slot and on day two they made the Croatian champions pay dearly for some dropped catches as they piled on a mammoth 133 for 2 from their 10 overs after Le Tissier had won the toss.

The Griffins captain made an unbeaten 74 with 12 fours and a couple of sixes and shared in an opening stand of 98 with Damian Wallen.

They then restricted Zagreb Sokol to just 46 for 9 in reply, with Jason Martin shining behind the stumps.

As is their preference, Griffins got to bat first in their second game of the day, too, when Bjorvika’s Usman Haider put them in.

However, this time they struggled to build any momentum as they lost key man Le Tissier in the third over when he was caught for 12 at mid-off off a leading edge.

His was still the second highest score of the innings, though, with only Adam Martel surpassing him with 16.

Having restricted Griffins to 70 all out, Bjorvika made short work of their run chase as Khurram Shahzad launched six sixes in his 39 made from just 10 balls.

Griffins are due to play twice again today.