Guernsey begin European T20 World Cup qualifiers by beating Luxembourg and Bulgaria

Tom Nightingale hit two sixes and four fours in his player of the match innings against Bulgaria

Guernsey began their qualifying campaign for the 2024 T20 World Cup with wins over Bulgaria and Luxembourg.

They were 17-run victors over Luxembourg on Monday in the Sub Regional Europe B Qualifier tournament.

While in a rain-affected opener on Sunday in Finland, Guernsey recorded a a 52-run victory over Bulgaria.

Guernsey take on Austria - who are level at the top of their pool with two wins from two games - on Wednesday in a potential group decider.

The winners of the pool will play the other group winners in a play-off to decide who will make the next stage of qualification.

Tom Nightingale won player of the match against Bulgaria in a game reduced to 19 overs per side

With Guernsey at 54-4, Nightingale and Ben Ferbrache put on 68 for Guernsey's fifth wicket before Tom Nightingale was bowled by Kevin D'Souza for 40 off 24 balls to leave them 122-5 off 17.2 overs.

Ferbrache went on to make 28 as the Sarnians ended their innings on 130-9.

In reply Bulgaria were restricted to just 78 all out from 18 overs.

A dangerous-looking second-wicket partnership of 41 between Hristo Lakov and Saim Hussain was broken up within the space of an over - Lakov was stumped by Jason Martin off Adam Martel for 28 before David Hooper bowled Hussain for 22.

But a batting collapse saw the Bulgarians put on just 18 more runs as they went from 60-1 to 78 all out, with no other Bulgarian managing double figures.

Martel, Hooper and Anthony Stokes all took three wickets, with Martel's return of 3-17 making him the pick of the Guernsey bowlers.

Bowlers set platform for Luxembourg win

Matthew Stokes' 35 against Luxembourg came off 31 balls and included just one four

A poor start saw Guernsey reduced to 26-3 against Luxembourg, but Oliver Nightingale and Matthew Stokes' fourth-wicket partnership of 62 steadied the islanders' innings.

Stokes made 35 off 31 balls and Oliver Nightingale 28 off 23 as Guernsey moved on to 99-5.

Ferbrache hit an unbeaten 25 while Jason Martin scored 14 not out as Guernsey ended on 131-5.

In reply, Guernsey's bowlers began excellently as they restricted Luxembourg to just 12-1 off the opening five-over powerplay.

Luxembourg did not hit a boundary until the ninth over, when they hit two fours and a six as Anthony Stokes went for 15 to move on to 35-2.

Joost Mees and Shiv Karan Singh Gill's third-wicket stand of 49 came to an end when Mees was caught off Will Peatfield's bowling for 22.

Gill eventually fell for 47 off 38 balls as he was caught behind off Peatfield, meaning Luxembourg's outside hopes of a win were dashed.

Peatfield ended with figures of 3-22 as Luxembourg managed 114-6 to lose by 17 runs.