Jersey kicked off their European Division 1 Championship title defence with a comfortable 6 wicket victory over Germany at Les Quennevais this morning.

Having won the toss and electing to field Jersey started brightly, with disciplined bowling from openers Ryan Driver and Chris Jones reducing Germany to 6-2 in 4 overs.

Matters got worse when the captain Asif Khan was dismissed for 14, caught behind off the bowling of Anthony Hawkins-Kay, leaving Germany struggling at 27-3.

But a brisk 36 off 25 balls from Imran Choudhry, including three big straight sixes, steered Germany out of danger and on their way to 99-7 off their 20 overs. Hawkins-Kay was the pick of the Jersey bowlers, finishing with figures of 3-13 from 4 overs.

Jersey then set about their run-chase with intent, openers Ed Farley and Dean Morrison running hard between the wickets and helping Jersey to 26-0 in 3 overs.

They experienced a slight wobble as they slipped to 70-4 but a 30-run partnership between captain Peter Gough and Chris Jones steadied the ship and led Jersey to victory with 23 balls to spare.

Elsewhere in Group B, newly promoted Belgium beat France by 5 wickets at the FB Fields.

Chasing a total of 114, Belgian opener Nirvam Shah led the way with a knock of 33, helping his team to victory with 2 balls to spare.

In the other game in Group B Denmark were emphatic winners Farmers, beating Israel by 8 wickets.

Batting first Israel had made a poor start, losing 2 wickets in their first 7 balls. They eventually limped to 94-9 in 20 overs, Yaniv Rajpurker top-scoring with 26.

Danish opener Frederik Klokker then hit 44 off 43 balls to lead his side to a crushing victory inside 16 overs.