Guernsey hit back to level T20I series with Germany
GUERNSEY’S current captain and his predecessor starred with the bat as the Island side hit back from a disappointing opening defeat in great style against Germany yesterday in the Netherlands.
After losing the first game of their three-match T20I series comprehensively, the Sarnians successfully chased down a challenging 165 in the second to win off the last ball by five wickets.
Adam Martel hit the winning runs, but it was interim skipper Matt Stokes who saw the side home with an unbeaten 56 not out from just 31 balls including two fours and four sixes.
Earlier Josh Butler had given the Greens a fine start with 59 from 46 balls hitting three sixes and five fours.
The Nightingale brothers, Tom and Ollie, both chipped in with double-figure scores.
In the first game, Guernsey’s hopes were largely blown away in the first powerplay as they collapsed to 17 for 4 with the top four batters all back in the pavilion.
GH Smit, who was an 11th hour replacement in the squad following the recent knee injury to Luke Le Tissier, was first to fall for a duck and he was quickly followed by Tom Nightingale and Stokes for 1 and 0 respectively before Butler was bowled for 10.
Ollie Nightingale and Ben Ferbrache managed to steady the ship for a while with a fifth-wicket partnership of 40, but once they were separated when the latter fell for 16, wickets started tumbling again with none of the lower order reaching double figures.
The older Nightingale brother finished as top scorer on 35 including three boundaries as Guernsey were all out for 98.
That target did not trouble Germany in the the slightest and they chased it down in 11 overs for the loss of just opener Shahid Afridi, who was bowled by Luke Bichard for 17. Venkatraman Ganesan finished unbeaten on 43 and Talha Ahmed Khan was 32 not out.
