Scotland made it two wins from two in the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup Europe Qualifier on Friday to mark captain Richie Berrington’s 300th appearance for his country in style.
The hosts backed up Thursday’s triumph over Germany at Goldenacre with a less convincing, but crucial win against Jersey at Grange CC.
The visitors bowling first restricted Scotland to 149-6, but the home bowlers and fielders put in a solid effort to restrict their opponents to 135-9 and win by 14 runs.
Mark Watt was named player of the match for his 31 not out and 4-21 for Scotland and he said: “We are pleased with the win because Jersey are a good side who put us under pressure in the first half with the ball.
“They were buzzing in the field, so myself and Chris Greaves were just trying to put together a decent partnership when we came together.
“At the break we thought that we could defend 149 as we always back our skills as a bowling unit.
“We bowled and fielded pretty well as a team and we were happy to get our second win in two days.
“Now we will rest up over the weekend and get ourselves ready for the next match against Italy on Monday. They are a good side and we will need to perform well to keep our positive run going.”
Jersey won the toss here and put Scotland into bat while the home line up was the same as the one that had played on Thursday.
Scotland started strongly, George Munsey taking two fours off Harrison Carlyon and Oli Hairs one to put 13 runs on the board.
Munsey then hit two more boundaries in the second over off Julius Sumerauer to take the score onto 23 before Jersey took the first scalp in the third over.
Hairs, who had made 73 against Germany, was out for four on this occasion as Carlyon caught him off the bowling of captain Charles Perchard.
Matthew Cross joined Munsey at the crease and they pushed the score onto 34-1 after four overs.
Munsey hit a four in the fifth over, but off the fifth ball Cross was bowled for five as he tried to sweep Perchard.
Scotland’s 50 came up in the seventh over, but Jersey took the third wicket of the day in that set too. Elliot Miles was the bowler who got the key scalp of Munsey for 33 off 25 balls and it was 50-3.
Berrington and Brandon McMullen took things up to 64-3 at the start of the 10th over before Perchard caught the latter for two off Benjamin Ward.
Jersey had their tails up and were bowling and fielding well at that stage with Scotland reaching 68-4 at the halfway mark of their innings.
Berrington hit fours in the next two overs to take things up to 84-4 off 12 overs before two wickets came in the next two.
In the 13th over Berrington was caught by Josh Lawrenson off the bowling of Miles for 34 off 29 balls and then, in the 14th over, Michael Leask was bowled for eight trying to sweep off Ward.
That meant that Scotland were 88-6 and Chris Greaves and Watt came to the crease to do a bit of a rebuilding job.
In fact, they did much more than a rebuilding job, putting on 61 for the seventh wicket to help hoist Scotland up their final total of 149-6.
Greaves made 30 not out which included five fours while Watt made 31 not out including two fours and a cracking six off Dominic Blampied which impressed the supporters in attendance.
Miles’ 2-25 were the best figures for Jersey who used seven bowlers.
In reply, Jersey opened with Charlie Brennan and Carlyon while Watt too the ball first for the Scots as he had done on Thursday.
And it was Watt who was smiling first as, with the sixth ball of the first over, he enticed Brennan to push at one and he was caught by Safyaan Sharif for a duck.
Carlyon was joined at the crease by Nicholas Greenwood and the score had progressed to 15-3 until an eventful fourth over.
Brad Currie, on his second appearance for his country, had Carlyon caught by Munsey for 14 to give him his first ever international wicket and then, three balls later, Asa Tribe was caught by Berrington for a duck.
Scotland kept up the pressure and it was 17-3 after five overs before the batters had a fruitful sixth over as Jonty Jenner hit two fours off Currie.
Greenwood swept a six at the end of the following over off Watt in another 10 run spell.
After nine overs Greenwood (19 not out) and Jenner (22 not out) had helped things tick along nicely and the Scots needed a wicket.
Step forward Gavin Main who, after being flicked for six the ball before, bowled a beauty to get the dangerous Jenner caught behind by wicketkeeper Cross for 29.
It meant that, after a couple of rain showers had come and gone, Jersey were 65-4 at the halfway stage of their chase, needing 85 more runs off the remaining 60 balls.
As Scotland tried to turn the screw and make sure of the victory, wicket number five fell at the start of the 13th over.
Lawrenson tried a ramp shot off the bowling of McMullen, but only succeeded in feathering it through to Cross and he was heading back to the pavilion for two.
Greenwood was still there on 30 not out, but Scotland were building pressure.
And Greenwood fell next, the bowler being Sharif, but Berrington the man taking a bow after the penultimate ball of the 15th over.
The ball was crunched towards the Scotland captain and he took an excellent catch with Greenwood going for 36 off 27 balls.
That was 93-6 and it was soon 98-7 when Sumerauer skied one off Watt and was caught by Leask.
By the end of the 17th over, Jersey needed 43 runs off 18 balls and that task became even harder during the 18th over when Watt trapped Blampied LBW.
The very next ball Perchard was also trapped in front before Miles blocked the hat-trick ball.
Jersey went down fighting though and in the 20th over Ward hit 20 off Main, including two big sixes, but the total of 135-9 meant Scotland had won by 14 runs.
Ward finished unbeaten on 47 for Jersey while Watt took 4-21 and Currie 2-26.
Earlier on Friday, Ireland made it two wins from two when they defeated Denmark by nine wickets at Grange CC. Denmark were bowled out for 122 before the Irish made 123-1.
And at Goldenacre, Germany got their first win of the competition when 83 all out by Austria was followed up by 86-1 by the Germans.
The competition continues on Sunday with Italy versus Jersey at 10.30am at Goldenacre while at Grange CC at the same time Austria against Ireland is on followed by, at 3.30pm, Denmark taking on Germany.
Scotland are next in action on Monday at 10.30am at Grange CC versus Italy.
