Jersey roll over Vanuatu's batting to take title
A round-up of the final day of WCL Division Five matches in Benoni, where Ben Stevens starred with bat and ball in the title bout
ESPNcricinfo staff
09-Sep-2017
The victorious Jersey team lift the title • Gallo Images
Vanuatu and Jersey might have already secured promotion to Division Four, but Jersey also secured bragging rights by rolling over Vanuatu for 135 in the final of WCL Division Five. Having set Vanuatu 256 on the back of 86 off 101 from Ben Stevens - an easy target, considering Vanuatu chased 228 in 28.2 overs under pressure on their road to promotion - their bowlers went on to bowl them out with over 13 overs to spare. Stevens was not done with Vanuatu yet, topping the bowling figures too with three wickets at a miserly 2.80 to the over in his ten overs of left-arm spin.
In a more closely contested game for third place, Qatar overcame Italy by three wickets in a chase of 226. The chase was jointly constructed by a series of solid cameos - while opener and captain Imam-ul-Haq and Muhammed Tanveer were slow and steady in making thirties, in between them Kamran Khan and Tamoor Sajjad teed off for 43 off 35 (four sixes included) and 54 off 46 respectively. All that added up to offspinner Carl Sandri's 4 for 44 being in vain. Italy's innings, too, was built around just one half-century: 62 off 105 from opener Gian Meade. The star performers with the ball for Qatar were the pair of Mohammed Nadeem and Iqbal Hussain, who took combined figures of 17-0-77-5.
Riding on an unbeaten 123 from Venkatraman Ganesan - which took his tournament average to 182 - Germany chased down 270 comfortably against Guernsey to take fifth place. The chase was built around a fourth-wicket stand of 148 between Ganesan and captain Rishi Pillai, which made sure they were well on track despite a couple of late wickets. All of Guernsey's batsmen got starts, getting into double digits, but none apart from Oliver Newey could get to a fifty, and that cost them in the end.
Cayman Islands finished rock bottom as Ghana snatched a six-wicket victory with all of 183 balls to spare in the seventh-place playoff, having shot out Cayman Islands for 136. That meant Cayman Islands went through the tournament without registering a win.