Greens set to climb up the ICC rankings

The Sarnians won all three matches played over the bank holiday at Sparsholt Cricket Club and they could rise as many as a dozen places when the rankings are next updates.

‘Obviously, we are delighted with the results,’ said Guernsey Women’s coach Ben Ferbrache.

‘The Isle of Man started the series 17 places above us, so it was a big series for us and we have come on in leaps and bounds from where we were even just six months ago.

‘Before the weekend, if you had asked me what we were looking to get out of the trip it was more about getting out on the ground to play some cricket and see where we are at, but we have leapfrogged where I thought we were.

‘We are not fully aware of what other matches or series are happening elsewhere at the moment, but we have done our own calculations and we were 51st in the rankings going into the weekend and we could be going up as high as the top 40, so that’s quite exciting for us.’

Guernsey won the first match of the Isle of Man series by three wickets as they chased down 99 before a more comprehensive five-wicket victory in game two when they were set 65 in their run chase.

The Greens batted first in match three and made 127 for 5 before having the Isle of Man 52 for 4 after 11.1 overs when rain brought an early finish. Guernsey won by 16 runs on the DLS method.

‘Two of the things we have been working on are our fielding, and I think we dropped only one or maybe two catches in the series, and in limiting our extras with our bowling because that’s the way you are going to win games of cricket,’ Ferbrache said.

‘I was delighted we ticked off both those boxes.

‘It has been a bit of a strange start to the year because we have not been able to do a huge amount outside due to the weather, but the way the players approached the games was very good.

‘Getting better comes with playing and last year we had 13 games as a group and this year we have 16 or 17 games lined up with a couple more possibly in the pipeline, which would be good. The more games we play, the better our game-awareness gets.

‘The way we went about winning the games, being really positive, was really pleasing.

‘Hannah Mechem was superb, taking four wickets in the first game and then six in the second as well as scoring runs, but it’s also nice to see the likes of Emily Merrien open the bowling, having come through the system, and Annie Le Ray making her debut.

‘It was a weekend where everyone chipped in somewhere along the line and watching the footage back we looked a lot more professional and clinical than we did last year.’

Next up for the team are matches against the RAF next month before the inter-insulars as they build towards the Nordic Cup ICC tournament in Oslo in August.

‘I’m excited by the season ahead,’ Ferbrache said.

‘This series [aganst the Isle of Man] was a stepping stone for what is to come and from what I saw, we could go quite a way up the rankings this year.’