At the Indian Association, GH Smit put on an impressive performance with both the bat and the ball to secure Guernsey its first win of the tournament Smit managed 71 in the first innings and took match figures of 4-27 and made life very easy for the man-of-the-match adjudicator.

Guernsey’s first win of the WCL Div.6 came after it had set Norway a target of 244 in its designated 50 overs. Opening batsman Smit made 71 off 116 balls, while Jeremy Frith made his third half-century of the tournament after scoring 54 off 56 balls.

Only four of Norway’s batsmen managed to reach double figures, one of whom was its captain Zaheer Ashiq. Zaheer led the way with an impressive 62 that included six fours and four sixes, but he departed after being caught by Guernsey wicketkeeper Thomas Kneller off the bowling of Frith, while the next highest scorer was Aziz Ataul who departed for 49 off the bowling of Smit.

Norway’s number-six batsman, Shabbaz Butt, made a valiant effort of 34 in an attempt to chase the target but none of the lower order batsmen was able to assist him as the side lost four quick wickets in the space of six overs.

Butt was the last wicket to fall to Smit, giving Guernsey its first victory of the tournament, with five overs to spare. Afterwards, man of the moment Smit said: “I’m very happy that we’ve finally managed to show what we can do as a side.

“I felt we underperformed in our previous matches which I think helped us today as we simply didn’t want to lose another match. It was a real motivation to do well.

“Tomorrow’s game against Botswana is going to be really tough especially since they, along with ourselves and Norway, have one win each – so tomorrow is all about who stays up and who goes down and we definitely don’t want to go down having only just come up to this division.”

Guernsey 244-9, 50 overs (GH Smit 71, Jeremy Frith 54; Iram Dawood 4-49)
Norway 197 all out, 45.4 overs (Zaheer Ashiq 62; GH Smit 4-27)
Guernsey won by 47 runs