Greens grind out their second win
TWO wins from two has put Guernsey just where they want to be heading into tomorrow’s big clash with Austria at the ICC Men’s T20 Sub Regional Europe Qualifier in Finland.
The Greens were made work hard by Luxembourg yesterday at the Kerava National Cricket Ground in Helsinki where the big hitting of Shiv Gill gave the underdogs a brief chance of an upset before Will Peatfield struck to remove the dangerman for 47 on his way to excellent figures of 3 for 22 from his four overs in a 17-run win for the Sarnians.
‘It probably got a little bit closer than we wanted. I think we were maybe 15-20 light with the bat,’ said Guernsey captain Josh Butler.
‘We perhaps didn’t quite play as well as we would’ve liked. However, a win is the main thing for us at the moment so very happy to win.’
Having been asked to bat by Joost Mees, once again the Guernsey top order failed fire in the powerplay as they were reduced to 26 for 3, but the middle order of Matt Stokes, Tom Nightingale and Ben Ferbrache repaired the damage largely through exploiting gaps in the field and hard running with boundaries hard to come by.
A total of 131 looked to be competitive on a big outfield and Guernsey bowled impressively in the powerplay, backed up by good catching from Ferbrache and Ant Stokes, to restrict Luxembourg to just 13 for 2 from their first six overs.
Gill got going in the middle overs, hitting half-a-dozen fours and a six, to prevent the Greens from getting complacent, but once he and Atif Kamal fell to Peatfield in successive deliveries at the end of the 17th over, Guernsey knew the job was done.
‘We wanted to take it as deep as we could and maybe we didn’t fire early enough ... but they bowled brilliantly,’ said Luxembourg captain Mees.
Matt Stokes was named player of the match for his 35 and four economical overs, although he was quick to praise Peatfield’s contribution with the ball.
‘The momentum was probably with them at that point and Will has worked so hard on his yorkers and to execute it in that pressured environment, it’s a credit to him and we’re thankful that we’ve got him on our side,’ Stokes said.
Today is a rest day in Finland before Guernsey take on the group’s other unbeaten side Austria tomorrow morning at 9am BST.
