The Isle of Man national men’s cricket side faced their Guernsey counterparts in an international T20 series at the weekend.

The series took place at the King George V Sports Ground in Guernsey and saw the teams tackle one T20 on Saturday afternoon and another on Sunday. Unfortunately, a third match was abandoned because of rain.

The Isle of Man batted first in the opening contest and reached a total of 110 runs for eight wickets, led by openers Adam McAuley and Carl Hartmann who put on 51 for the first wicket before the latter fell for 16. McAuley top-scored with a well-made 39 runs.

In reply, Guernsey batted steadily and, despite Isle of Man debutant George Newton (1-19) and Matt Ansell (1-17) bowling well in tandem, the hosts reached their target in 16.2 overs for the loss of three wickets.

Game two saw Guernsey bat first and they were soon in trouble thanks to a double wicket maiden in the first over from Ansell and an early wicket for Chris Langford plus an excellent catch from JJ Griffin.

Under pressure at 31-3, the home side responded impressively as an outstanding century from Matthew Stokes saw Guernsey set a target of 198-6. Corbin Liebenberg and Ansell took two wickets each for the Manx side.

In reply, the Isle of Man played well as Dollin Jansen led the response with a fluent 71 from 46 balls - his maiden senior national team international half-century.

He was aided by Hartmann with 35, while Newton was 27 not out from 19 balls but they ran out of overs and ended short of the target on 158-4, ensuring victory for Guernsey who are ranked 36th in the world 26 paces ahead of the island.

- A special mention to Ansell, Hartmann and McAuley who received their unique numbered red caps for reaching 25 appearances for the Isle of Man during last weekend’s series.

Kyle Shnier made his international debut in the third match which was unfortunately cut short because of the weather.