The Sarnians fought hard and gave the Caesareans a fright in the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup Europe Sub Regional Qualifier A final in Cyprus on Saturday, but ultimately the strength in depth possessed by Jersey saw them over the line on what was a memorable weekend for the Tribe brothers.
While Zak was producing a man-of-the-match performance with bat and ball against Guernsey, his younger sibling Asa was making a century for the England Lions.
However, Nightingale took the positives from the steps the Greens are making at senior level.
‘We came here and made the final, which was the first job, and then we’ve given Jersey a good game,’ he said.
‘We’re getting closer. The games are always competitive now, which is a good start, and hopefully next time we’ll get over the line.’
The Guernsey skipper had opted to try and get runs on the board to put Jersey under the sort of pressure they had not tasted during the group stage in Cyprus when he won the toss and elected to bat.
Opener Josh Butler continued his good form with 50 from 41 balls and there were decent contributions from both Nightingale brothers, but the desired acceleration towards the end of the innings did not materialise with Tribe being particularly miserly in his three overs, claiming 2 for 10, as Guernsey were restricted to 139 which was 20 short of where they wanted to be.
The bowlers rose to the challenge, though, and reduced Jersey to 61 for 5 inside eight overs.
Luke Bichard got the ball rolling with the big scalp of Harrison Carlyon before Adam Martel added the wickets of Patrick Gouge and Nick Greenwood in the powerplay.
Matt Stokes removed both Jonty Jenner and Julius Sumerauer in the same over to raise Guernsey hopes, but then Tribe steadied the ship for Jersey and led his side to victory with a couple of overs to spare with help from Charlie Brennan and Ben Ward.
‘I started to believe,’ said captain Nightingale.
‘We’ve played them a lot. We know they’re competitive all the way down, they bat really deep, so, yeah, I believed, I was hoping, but it wasn’t quite meant to be today and Tribey batted really nicely.’
Tribe gave the Greens credit for the way they came out after the interval.
‘Guernsey bowled very well in that second innings, they put us under a lot of pressure and took wickets at good times, so I knew I had to try and take it as deep as I could and thankfully it came off today, so very happy,’ said the man of the match.
Jersey skipper Chuggy Perchard admitted that ‘it was a bit nervy’ when his side had lost five wickets.
‘At the halfway stage with 140 just to chase, absolutely delighted with that. I think it was a terrific effort with the ball in the field,’ he said.
‘A nervy run chase, but we got over the line in the end. We bat all the way down and Brennan, Wardy, Zak haven’t actually had that much batting to do this week, but it just shows the quality in our batting line up.’
