ICC/CricketEurope

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Ireland won the toss and elected to field. This proved to be a good decision from early on with the opening bowlers Shane Getkate and Nick Donnell both causing problems for the opening batsmen, John Borg and Benjamin De Figueiredo, particularly with the short ball.

Therefore it was no surprise that in the third over, Borg got out to Getkate when he tried to pull and top edged to Martin at fine leg. Getkate soon followed up his first wicket with another from a short ball with De Figueiredo edging to Stirling at slip. At the other end Nick Donnell then trapped Jersey captain Samuel De La Haye trapped lbw for 12. This brought Stephens to the middle to join Kean and together they went about trying to rescue the Jersey innings.

Both batsmen were very patient and watchful but were struggling to score runs off the Irish spinners Nelson and Averill. The partnership was broken when Stephens was narrowly run out. This brought the arrival of Maguire to the crease and but he fell first ball when Nelson induced him to edge the ball to Averill in the slips.

With Jersey in deep trouble at 86 for 6, Lee Nelson felt it was time to bring back Getkate into the attack. This proved to be an astute decision with Getkate picking up three of the final four wickets very cheaply. Firstly Tim De La Haye was caught behind by a diving Poynter. He then dismissed both Blackburn and Perchard without scoring. This completed his five wicket haul for just 15 runs.

The Irish innings got off to a quick start with the openers Nelson and Thompson scoring runs freely all round the ground and finding the boundary rope regularly. From the Demesne end Stephens was bowling very accurately and with plenty of variation and was rewarded when he clean bowled Nelson.

This brought McCarter to the crease and the run rate accelerated once again as he and Thompson both hitting some fine boundaries. After this flurry Ireland immediately lost two wickets on the same score. Firstly McCarter edged behind to De Figueiredo off Maguire's and then Thompson edged Stephens to gully. Paul Stirling was only at the crease for a short duration before he tried to hit Blackburn over the top and was caught by Borg at mid off.

Poynter and Balbirnie then batted very sensibly to finish the game and give Ireland their second successive victory in the tournament.