Middle order collapse costs Israel

There is a saying in cricket that you are only as good as your last innings. Israel arrived for their match against Guernsey on the back of a great innings against France, but came crashing down to earth with a 5-wicket defeat to Guernsey.

Captain Hillel Awasker won the toss and elected to bat first. He himself was out early for 4, but Eshkol Solomon and Dani Hotz, arguably the two most talented batsmen in Israel, added 51 for the 2nd wicket. The departure of Eshkol for 32, including five boundaries, triggered a spectacular collapse, with Isaac Massil (1) continuing his miserable tournament, the batting heroes so far this week, Sanjay Gupta and Raymond Aston, were both out first ball, Hotz was bowled for a patient 14, and then Vard (3) fell to complete the collapse - 6 wickets for 8 runs leaving Israel 68 for 7. Shai Hayun and Lushenko Perriera were both out for 10, leaving Israel 91 for 9. At least the last wicket pair of Isaac Talkar (14) and Yaniv Razpurker (19*) did not give in, adding 37 runs to take the total to 128.

Israel gave themselves real hope of defending their total, with Gupta getting the first wicket, and then the impressive Talkar taking a further two, as Guernsey were reduced to 26 for 3. Although Perreira took two wickets later on, the Guernsey opening batsman took his side to victory, finishing 71 not out. As happens all too often with the national team, it is of little comfort that he was dropped early on.

If there was one bright note from the game it was that while the older and established players who failed to perform, the younger generation - Solomon, Razpurker, Hayun, Hotz and Talkar - did all make some contribution and would only have benefited from the experience.