CBO Inter-Insular Trophy - Saturday 9 August, 10.30am (KGV)
Guernsey and Jersey have served up some real treats this summer, but those encounters have been over the short white-ball format in which the Reds edged a thrilling T20I Series 2-1 before getting the better of the Sarnians at the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup Europe Final tournament in the Netherlands despite the record-breaking partnership between Matt Stokes and Ollie Nightingale that threatened to pull off a remarkable turnaround victory for a while.
Those performances have given the Greens a degree of confidence that they can get their hands back on the 50-over silverware for the first time in 10 years this weekend.
‘We’ve always got a chance,’ said skipper Nightingale.
‘I think against Jersey earlier in the year in the T20s, we could have easily won that series 3-0. So if we’d won that 3-0 and we were going into a one-off game, you’d probably give us a good chance.
‘They’ll go in as favourites and rightly so, because they’re a good team. Look, they beat 13th in the world three weeks ago, so I guess it’s different to your other inter-island matches, but look, we’ve got a great opportunity to go out there and take the game to them and see what we can do.’
Jersey will be without Jonty Jenner, who scored a brilliant century the last time the inter-insular was held at the KGV, but they are boosted by the availability of Glamorgan batter Asa Tribe.
Guernsey have four squad regulars unavailable in Charlie Birch, Josh Butler, Zak Damarell and Charlie Simmonds, but they have welcomed Lucas Barker back into the fold and they will be hoping he can bring his fine domestic form to the inter-insular stage.
‘A couple of guys made themselves unavailable for various reasons, which is pretty disappointing, but Lucas is back,’ Nightingale said.
‘He brings a lot of energy, brings something a bit different, so he’s been good around the group the last couple of weeks and hopefully there’s a bit of a longer term play there. He’s really keen to come back, so I’m looking forward to having him involved.
‘I don’t think we’ve played one game of cricket with our first XI, or what on paper would be your first XI, this season, and we’re probably not going to do so.
‘We know it’s going to be tough, but look, we’ve played some good cricket in patches, and it takes a couple of blokes to have a day out and we’ll be in with a good chance.’
The captain added that although the squad’s focus has largely been on T20 cricket for much of the season for obvious reasons, he is not concerned about being undercooked in the 50-over format.
‘We’re pretty used to chopping and changing. Obviously the squad stays fairly similar, so I guess it’s just about getting in the nets and maybe applying ourselves a bit more and looking at playing longer format cricket again.
‘Obviously at the tournament [in the Netherlands] we spoke a lot about doing things better for longer, so I guess this is a great chance to go and do things better for a longer period of time with it being 50 overs.
‘I think the nature of KGV at the moment is it’s going to be high run scoring. So if we go out there and sit and expect things to happen, then we’re going to be in a bit of trouble.
‘[The key to success is] probably being aggressive. When we’re playing well, we’re taking the game to the opposition, and when we’re not playing well, we tend to sit back and wait for things to happen. Against the side that they’re bringing, we’re not going to be able to do that, so hopefully we’ll go out there, give it a good go and see what we can do.’
Squads
Guernsey: Ollie Nightingale (captain), Lucas Barker, Luke Bichard, Martin-Dale Bradley, Ollie Clapham, Ben Ferbrache, Ben Fitchet, Charlie Forshaw, Harry Johnson, Adam Martel, Tom Nightingale, Ed Robinson, Ant Stokes, Matt Stokes.
Jersey: Chuggy Perchard (captain), Charlie Brennan, Harrison Carlyon, Jake Dunford, Ed Giles, Patrick Gouge, Nick Greenwood, Josh Lawrenson, Will Perchard, Theo Pullman, George Richardson, Julius Sumerauer, Asa Tribe, Zak Tribe.
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