Jersey stun Scots to stay in hunt for T20 World Cup

T20 World Cup Europe Qualifier

Scotland 133-7: Cross 43, Watt 28; Carlyon 3-26, Ward 2-24

Jersey 134-9: Greenwood 49

Jersey win by one wicket

Scorecard

Jersey stunned Scotland with a final-ball, one-wicket victory to put them in contention for a place at the T20 World Cup for the first time.

Needing one run from the last delivery with nine wickets down, Jake Dunford scrambled the required single.

A win for Italy against the Netherlands in the last fixture of the European Qualifier would leave Jersey second in the standings, which would take them to the T20 World Cup in India next year.

A Dutch victory would result in them taking over from the Italians at the top, with second place decided on net run rate.

Scotland miss out on a fifth successive T20 World Cup, having been the highest ranked side at the tournament.

"The next few hours is potentially life defining for some of our guys, but there's nothing really we can do about it except to enjoy our victory," Jersey captain Charles Perchard told ICCTV.

"Years of graft and hard work and some real disappointments all led up to this moment and we're delighted.

"We've never beaten a side as good as Scotland before, so there was definitely some nerves in the camp.

"The coaches were trying to tell us to stay level and maybe we did, maybe we didn't, but we got over the line in the end."

Ben Greenwood top scored for Jersey with 49 as they set about chasing Scotland's modest 133-7.

But wickets started to tumble as nerves kicked in, including two frantic run-outs.

Ben Ward got Jersey back on track with thumping six in the penultimate over, only to be denied by a fantastic catch from Brendan McMullen when taking aim for the boundary again.

That left Perchard and Dunford, batters 10 and 11, with five runs to get from the last four balls, which they managed to spark scenes of wild celebrations.

"Unfortunately, we put ourselves under a lot of pressure early in that first innings and a lot of credit has to go to Jersey the way they played the game," said a disconsolate Scottish skipper Richie Berrington.

"They've played good cricket throughout this tournament and we knew we were going to have to be at our best today. Unfortunately, we were slightly off and couldn't quite get over the line in the end.

"But I'm proud of the way we managed to take it to the last ball in the game."

Scotland, who lost to Italy and had their game with Guernsey washed out, had a terrible time of it with the bat, stumbling to 13-3 and 64-6 before Matthew Cross (43 not out) and Mark Watt (28) offered much-needed resistance.

The Scottish bowlers managed to slow Jersey down in the tense closing stages but it was not enough to avoid a hugely damaging defeat.