Jersey beat Isle of Man to keep World Cup hope alive

Trinity Smith's knock of 44 was the second-highest total by a Jersey batter in the tournament so far

Jersey batter Trinity Smith helped keep the island's T20 Women's World Cup hopes alive as she hit 44 in a 49-run win over the Isle of Man in their European Division Two qualifier.

After Jersey slumped to 54-5 off nine overs, Smith and skipper Chloe Greechan came together and put on 74 runs in 9.4 overs as Jersey ended on 140-6 in Rome.

In reply, Isle of Man - who lost twice to Jersey in a warm-up tournament last month - could only make 91 all out in 17.1 overs as Analise Merritt took 4-22.

The win keeps Jersey's hopes of a top-two finish in the six-team round-robin event alive and, with it, progress to the final round of European qualifying in August.

They move up to second place in the group, ahead of Germany thanks to a better run rate after the Germans were beaten by hosts Italy.

The Italians are now guaranteed to qualify, having won all four of their matches, but Germany have a game in hand on Jersey and will progress if they win both of their final two games, having beaten the islanders on Monday.

Jersey face bottom side Sweden in their final fixture on Friday morning.

Jersey's bowlers impressed in Rome

Having lost the toss, Jersey started well with Merritt and Aimee Aikenhead putting on 36 for the first wicket.

But Merritt was caught for 24 midway through the sixth over and Grace Wetherall was out for a duck with the very next ball.

Aikenhead was sloppily run out an over later for 11 before Florence Tanguy was caught for four to leave Jersey on 45-4 as Alanya Thorpe took 3-25.

Smith was lucky not to be caught soon after, before she and skipper Greechan came together for the sixth wicket.

With Jersey's middle and lower order having struggled all tournament, the pressure was on the pair but they delivered to stabilise the innings as each picked their shots.

Smith's knock came off 40 balls and included five fours while Greechan went on to hit 28 not out from 32 balls to guide Jersey to 140-6.

In reply, the Manx batters could not deal with Jersey's superior bowling attack as they slumped to 28-4 off 5.1 overs.

Wetherall and Tanguy each took two wickets as Clare Crowe's career-best knock of 25 off 32 balls was the only real Manx resistance.

But when she was run out to take the score to 91-9, Jersey wasted little time in finishing the game off as Greechan took the remaining wicket with the next delivery.