JERSEY’S cricket team lost to Afghanistan by two wickets at Grainville on Saturday in the World Cricket League Division V final.

But their fightback as they defended a miserly 80 runs was simply phenomenal. Even to contemplate turning a losing score into a win showed a never-say-die mind-set that so nearly paid them dividends.

For on a brute of a wicket they reduced one of the pre-tournament favourites to 48 for seven in the 25th over and could have won if they had taken three of the game’s most difficult catching chances, or if man of the match, Hasti Gul Abed, who had already taken three wickets for 17 in Jersey’s innings, had not scored a four and a six in both the 32nd and 34th overs to move Afghanistan within seven runs of victory.

Abed’s 29 runs made him the game’s top scorer but after Jersey’s innings folded in the 40th over with only Steve Carlyon (17) and Jonny Gough (23) reaching double figures, the Afghans believed the game would be done and dusted an hour after lunchtime.