After France had beaten Germany earlier in the day, Jersey knew they had to either beat the Isle of Man or just avoid a heavy defeat in order to join Group B rivals Denmark in the semi-finals at Hove tomorrow.

But they had an almighty scare when some excellent bowling from the Isle of Man had them reduced to 99-8, at one point losing four wickets for just 13 runs. Alex Stokoe was the pick of the Manx bowlers with 3-12.

The Jersey tailenders managed to recover the Jersey innings by putting on 42 for the last 2 wickets to take the total to 141 all out from their 20 overs.

Any hopes the Isle of Man had of chasing down that Jersey total would have evaporated when they quickly found themselves on 24-4. Alex Stokoe was their one bright spot with the bat, scoring 35 before he was fifth out, but he was the only batsman to make double figures.

The team were restricted to 109-8 from their 20 overs, losing by 32 runs. Cornelis Bodenstein was the pick of the Jersey bowlers with 3-27.

A team cheering on the Isle of Man was France, who got themselves a sniff of a semi-final spot with a 28 run win over Germany earlier in the day.

Batting first after winning the toss, France managed to keep wickets in hand throughout their innings, always a key in Twenty20 cricket. Waseem Bhatti and Williamdeep Singh led the way for them with 45 not out and 44 respectively as they scored 152-3 from their 20 overs.

Germany's reply was led by an innings of 32 from 24 balls by Kashif Mahmood, but he wasn't helped when Germany lost three wickets for just 2 runs in a seven ball period across the sixth and seventh over.

Mahmood was out in the ninth over with the score on 58-5, and whilst a 23 run sixth wicket partnership gave the German reply some credibility, they were never likely to chase down the target, and were restricted to 124-9 from their 20 overs.

Also today Denmark recorded a huge win over an out of sorts Belgian squad down to just 12 players due to injuries. Freddie Klokker stood in as captain for an injured Michael Pedersen, and he had no hesitation in electing to bat first after winning the toss.

He obviously found the pitch to his liking as he smashed 87 from just 46 balls to provide the bulk of Denmark's total of 199-4 from their 20 overs. He was helped by 48 from Kamran Mahmood.

In reply the Belgian opening pair put on 21, but that was the sole decent partnership in what became a procession of Belgian wickets. The first wicket saw them lose five wickets for 8 runs in less than three overs, and they were eventually restricted to just 75-9 from their 20 overs to lose by 124 runs.

The margin would have been higher had it not been for a resilient 15 from Shaival Mehta towards the end of the innings. Syed Bashir Shah was the pick of the Danish bowlers with a superb 4-17.

Jersey will play Italy in the first semi-final at Hove tomorrow, whilst Denmark will take on Guernsey. The winners of the two semis will then play the final under floodlights at 6:30pm but more importantly book their tickets to the UAE for the global qualifier in November.