ICC/CricketEurope

Jersey made it two wins out of two with a 67 run victory over France at a windswept and showery Port SDoif.

Jersey was put into bat and soon lost Peter Gough, lbw to Abdul Qureshi witht he score on 19. Four runs later skipper Matthew Hague was caught behind by Bhatti, again off Qureshi, without scoring. However, Chris Jones and Ryan Driver steadied the innings with a fine stand of 77 which was only ended by a smart piece of fielding to run out Jones.

Driver then went on to make 48 before he fell to Ali Akbar. Johnnie Gough maintained the momentum with a breezy 39 from 45 balls as the Jersey lower order helped him take the final total to 188 when the last wicket fell in the 50th over. Most successful of the French bowlers was Qureshi with four for 31.

After a lengthy rain break the French innings began brightly with Ramesh Sithambaranathan batting very positively an dpunishing any loose deliveries. However both he and fellow opener Arun Ayyavooraju fell at the same score, 37. The Jersey bowlers immediately began to exrt control and German and Malik both came and went quickly as France slumped to 48 for four.

Skipper Bhatti tried to bring his side back into the match but he received little support from the middle order which struggled against tight bowling from Anthony Kay. Only Akbar joined him in making double figures and the introduction of Nigel Crocker into the attack saw three wickets fall quickly as France subsided to 121 all out in the 39th over.

Guernsey also remain unbeaten after they recorded a straightforward victory over Germanay at College Field.

Having won the toss, Germany batted first but found runs hard to come by against a disciplined Guernsey attack. Lee Savident dismissed both openers as Germany slumped to 48 for four wickets. Satyanarayana Srinivas helped initiate a recovery so that Germany improved to 99 for six - however a rain interruption soon afterwards caused the match to be reduced to 45 overs per side. On the resumption the German tail collapsed to an all out total of just 121 - which meant that Guernsey's target (adjusted according to the Duckworth Lewis method) was just 117. Savident and JAmes Nussbaumer both took three wickets for Guernsey.

Although Matt Oliver fell early, Savident and Jeremy Frith batted carefully to ensure that Guernsey would have no problems in overhauling thaeir target. They put on 73 before Savident fell to Bhatti for 42 from 63 balls but Tim Ravensvroft joined Frith to see Guernsey safely home without further loss. Frith ended up unbeaten on 41 from 115 balls as Guernsey won with almost 12 overs to spare.

The third game of the day produced the most exciting finish as Croatia fell just 5 runs short against Gibraltar at KGV in a 49 over match. Croatia asked Gibraltar to bat and must have felt justified in doing so as Gibraltar scraped their way to 46 for three - Peter Siljeg having taken two wickets in a very economical spell. Richard Buzaglo, for the second day running, was instrumemntal in trying to rescue the situation for Gibraltar, making a patient 34 as Gibraltar made their way steadily to a final total of 157. John Vujnovic claimed the last three wickets to fall to return figures of four for 36 from his allotted ten overs.

Paul and John Vujnovich put on 44 for Croatia's opening wicket to set their team up welkl inthe run chase. When John was dismissed by Kabir Mirpuri he was replaced by Chris Pivac who contributed 32 from 49 balls before being bowled by Christopher Watkins. However,the remaining Croatian batsmen, apart from Jeffrey Grzinich (31), struggled to maintain the required scoring rate and wickets fell regularly. Mirpuri waas especially difficult to get away and completed his ten overs with just eight runs conceded and three victims to his name.

However at 136 for six and four overs remaining a Croatian victory still seemed likely. But it was not to be as Gibraltar took their catches and run out chances to get home by just five runs with two balls remaining.