ANDY BIGGINS duly lifted the Inter-Insular Trophy on Saturday, but Guernsey’s Jersey-born skipper did not have the cakewalk victory that many had envisaged at lunch.
Indeed, Jersey’s young side, led by first-time skipper Meeku Patidar, might well have been whistling the ‘Great Escape’ had their tenacious and unlikely attempt to defend a meagre 145 total yielded a couple of more wickets.
Patidar was rightly proud of the way his side bowled and fielded to give themselves an outside chance of victory - until the partnership of Guernsey’s anchorman Jeremy Frith and hard-hitting man-of-the match Stuart Le Prevost saw the Sarnians home with six overs and five wickets to spare.
Most of the large, enthusiastic and sun-baked crowd had virtually given up on a home victory by midway through Jersey’s stuttering innings.
Said a disappointed but not despondent Patidar: ‘We simply did not bat well enough.
We talked about building partnerships, and had the right intentions but it did not happen.
It was very tough - 145 was not enough.
Our wickets fell consistently.
‘But we gave it a go and tried our hardest - our bowling and fielding were excellent.’ Asked about his young players contribution Patidar said: ‘They can go forward from here.
Take away the good points - and there were good points - but learn from the mistakes that cost us the game.
‘Our support was brilliant - I take my hat off to them, they played their part to the full today, but we didn’t.’ The Guernsey skipper agreed with Patidar’s assessment: ‘This was really a 220 minimum wicket.
We made the only telling partnership of the day and that was the difference in the end.
But Jersey fought well.’ Jersey’s innings was generally one of unfulfilled promise, a good stroke followed by a dismissal in several cases.
Opener Steve Carlyon went cheaply after seven overs while Chris Jones stayed around for 21 overs, scoring 21 runs, before falling to a lbw decision from a Gary Rich delivery.
Jones had been joined by Ben Silva and the partnership looked promising for a while before the No 3 fell, caught and bowled by the impressive Ami Banerjee.
Guernsey were called for 20 wides in the innings although several observers felt the visiting bowlers were being treated leniently regarding no balls.
‘Extras’ turned out to be Jersey’s second top scorer with 29, bettered only by the tenacious Tony Carlyon, surely the home side’s man of the match, with 37.
But by the time Carlyon came to the wicket the vital wickets of Jones, Peter Gough and captain Patidar had fallen.
Carlyon’s eagerness to run, however, was not matched by Andy Dewhurst, whose failure to send back his senior partner, who had called for a quick single, resulted in the loss of his own wicket - one he had protected with some determination in his 23 minute spell.
Jersey desperately needed someone to anchor the innings and to allow others to push the score along.
Needing to push the run-rate up, Carlyon and new partner Mark Saralis started finding the boundary, but in attempting a repeat of a previous towering stroke Saralis only found the safe hands of Firth.
A dogged, unbeaten innings from wicketkeeper Simon Short looked promising, but Jersey’s hopes of a decent total disappeared when Carlyon fell to a catch by Richard Headington off the bowling of Frith in the 45th over.
Jersey failed to make use of their allotted 50 overs, with Paul Horton and Peter Blackburn, another making his senior Island debut, both being dismissed cheaply.
And that, the general opinion was, was the game all but over.
But Jersey came back fired-up after lunch with a super opening spell from Saralis and Blackburn rocking Guernsey.
Two superb catches from the Carlyon brothers - you would be pushed to see better at Test level - gave Saralis the wickets of both openers.
Headington went first, caught behind by Steve after a superb, high leaping catch to his left, followed by Tim Duke being caught in a similar field position, but this time low down to Tony’s left.
Game back on? Well yes, for a good while at least, with Guernsey failing to match even Jersey’s miserable run rate.
But wickets were vital as any decent partnership was going to see Guernsey retain the trophy.
Jersey had to wait another ten overs before the next success, with Horton trapping Banerjee lbw - a decision the batsman was clearly not happy about.
But Frith, who had joined Banerjee in the fifth over, proved to be a deep, well-seated thorn in the Jersey side.
He was there to hold the show together and he did that admirably, carrying his bat through to the end, hitting only three boundaries in his 155-minute stint.
Dewhurst claimed the valuable scalp of captain Biggins as his first in senior inter-island cricket, when Peter Gough took a straightforward catch to make it 43 for four off 21 overs.
Jersey were 56 for four at the same point in their innings.
But the run-rate was given a boost with Matt Oliver’s arrival and in the next ten overs he added 26 runs from 29 balls before being removed by Gough’s slower delivery, Saralis taking the catch.
Jersey gained no respite, however, with Le Prevost coming out to bat.
Despite a hamstring pull restricting his running the powerful Sarnian soon started to pull the match out of Jersey’s reach, hitting 11 fours in his total of 53.
Backed by Frith, Le Prevost saw Guernsey home in the middle of the 44th over with a towering six - 35 runs coming off the last three overs.
Article posted on 9th August, 2004 - 12.00am
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