Ruthless Greens now have to wait and hope

Following the agonising last-over defeat to Austria on Wednesday morning, the Sarnians responded in style yesterday by thumping Slovenia by nine wickets as they completed their small run chase within the six-over powerplay.

The Greens were outstanding in the field as they knocked over the opposition for just 55 at the Kerava National Cricket Ground.

The seamers excelled with Will Peatfield, Matt Stokes and Luke Bichard picking up a couple of wickets apiece and there was one for David Hooper.

Guernsey also effected three run-outs.

The reply was short and sweet from a Sarnian point of view.

Luke Le Tissier put on 43 for the first wicket with Zak Damarell, player-of-the-match Le Tissier hitting 29 from just nine deliveries with four fours and two sixes before he was bowled by Primoz Pustoslemsek in the fourth over.

Ollie Nightingale, who came into the team in place of the unwell Jason Martin, joined Damarell to finished the job off, with the left-handed opener wrapping things up in style with a six as he finished on 22 not out.

It means that Guernsey finish with three wins from four in their group, but that is unlikely to be enough to qualify for the final unless Bulgaria can pull off a major upset and beat Austria tomorrow.

‘Yesterday [against Austria] was quite difficult to take, especially being in the game throughout right up to the last ball, but we knew we had to bounce back and cricket is a funny game – anything could happen in the Austria-Bulgaria game,’ said Le Tissier.

‘We set out to do a job, our bowlers today were outstanding, we fielded well ... and the low total made it a lot easier for Zak and me to go out and play with freedom.’

Guernsey captain Josh Butler revealed the team wanted to be ruthless.

‘To take early wickets and continue to take wickets to bowl them out for a low score was really good and then our target was to chase it down in the powerplay and both Luke and Zak batted really well,’ he said.