Malta v Guernsey
ICC T20 World Cup Sub Regional Europe Qualifier C
Match no. T20I no. 2791
at King George V Sports Ground, Castel
on Thursday 22nd August 2024 at 15:30
Toss won by Guernsey who elected to field
Umpires Russell Warren (ENG), Azam Baig (IRE)
Referee Jareth McCready (IRE)
Player of the match Josh Butler (Gsy)

Malta innings			Runs	Balls	4s	6s	SR		Guernsey Bowling	Ov	Mdn	Runs	Wkt	Econ
Rockey Dianish	c Bichard	b Forshaw	20	17	3	0	117.65		Charlie Forshaw	4	0	31	3	7.75
Zeeshan Khan *	st Damarell	b Stokes	41	30	4	2	136.67		Luke Bichard	4	0	37	1	9.25
Basil George	c Fitchet	b Bradley	19	20	0	2	95		Harry Johnson	4	0	21	1	5.25
Jaspal Singh	c Butler	b Forshaw	16	16	2	0	100		Matthew Stokes	2	0	18	1	9
Gopal Thakur		b Martel	4	11	0	0	36.36		Tom Nightingale	1	0	3	0	3
Darshit Patankar +		b Bradley	12	9	2	0	133.33		Martin Bradley	4	0	23	2	5.75
Eldhose Mathew	c Butler	b Johnson	1	3	0	0	33.33		Adam Martel	1	0	3	1	3
Bikram Arora		b Forshaw	4	7	0	0	57.14
Jaswinder Singh	c Martel	b Bichard	3	2	0	0	150
Vidusha Rashmika	not out		5	3	1	0	166.67
Justin Shaju	run out (Stokes / Damarell)		2	2	0	0	100
Extra	(w 9, b 2, lb 1, p 0, nb 0)		12
Total			139	(RR.6.95)
Fall of wickets	1-42 (Dianish 5 ov), 2-82 (Khan 10.5 ov), 3-82 (George 11.2 ov), 4-89 (Thakur 13.3 ov), 5-108 (Patankar 15.3 ov), 6-117 (Mathew 16.4 ov), 7-129 (Jaspal Singh 18.4 ov), 8-132 (Arora 19 ov), 9-132 (Jaswinder Singh 19.1 ov), 10-139 (Shaju 20 ov)

Guernsey innings			Runs	Balls	4s	6s	SR		Malta Bowling	Ov	Mdn	Runs	Wkt	Econ
Josh Butler	not out		44	32	5	0	137.5		Justin Shaju	3	0	30	0	10
Ben Fitchet	c Patankar	b Jaswinder Singh	32	19	3	1	168.42		Eldhose Mathew	2.5	0	36	0	12.71
Tom Nightingale	c Thakur	b Arora	35	19	2	3	184.21		Vidusha Rashmika	3	0	28	0	9.33
Matthew Stokes	not out		26	14	2	0	185.71		Jaswinder Singh	2	0	21	1	10.5
Ollie Nightingale *	dnb								Bikram Arora	3	0	24	1	8
Isaac Damarell +	dnb
Adam Martel	dnb
Martin Dale Bradley	dnb
Charlie Forshaw	dnb
Harry Johnson	dnb
Luke Bichard	dnb
Extra	(w 1, b 0, lb 1, p 0, nb 1)		3
Total	(for 2 wkts in 13.5 ov)		140	(RR.10.12)
Fall of wickets	1-51 (Fitchet 5.2 ov), 2-101 (T Nightingale 10.2 ov)

‘Hosts claim a crucial victory at damp KGV’ by Gareth Le Prevost Guernsey Press
Guernsey beat both the weather and Malta yesterday to make it two wins from two in their ICC Men’s T20 World Cup Sub-Regional Europe Qualifier campaign.

Josh Butler finished 44 not out as Guernsey made it two wins from two in the T20 World Cup qualifier. After the start had been delayed for 25 minutes as patchy drizzle drifted over the KGV, the home side fought back well after Malta had enjoyed a good powerplay with the bat to restrict the opposition to 139 before knocking off the runs for the loss of just two wickets with 37 balls to spare.
Josh Butler was named player of the match as he finished 44 not out after taking two excellent catches in the field and he emphasised the importance of the victory with the weather forecast suggesting that tomorrow morning’s clash with Finland could be in serious doubt due to heavy rain.
‘Saturday morning looks pretty poor, so two strong wins to start is what we wanted,’ Butler said.
‘We were desperate to play today and we’ve got a good result and a good performance, so now on to the next one, whether that’s Saturday or whether that’s Sunday.’

The opener felt that Guernsey’s performance against Malta was very professional in circumstances.
‘When we all kitted up and then walked out the changing room and it was misty, drizzly, we sort of thought, “oh no” – but once we got on, we knew we’d probably stay on. ‘Quite testing conditions to field in, but I think we did really, really well, we fielded nice and clean. They had a strong start in the powerplay, which these teams will – they’ll try and take the powerplay down – but we knew once we were out of that we could claw it back and then chase down whatever they get.’

Tom Nightingale smashes a six

Butler also joked that the damp conditions ‘made turning tough on the mat, especially for a big bloke like me’ when it came to the run chase. ‘We want to chase as quickly as possible, but not, obviously, throw away four wickets in the powerplay, so I think both games we’ve done that really, really clinically and I think we’re pretty much going at 10s both games, which is really pleasing. ‘Is it a catch 22? We want our middle order to get some time at the crease as well, but I think for us it’s game by game, win strong and move on to the next.’