The Isle of Man has beaten Sweden in the opening group game of the ICC Under-19 World Cup Europe Division Two qualifiers in Guernsey.

Sweden won the toss and chose to bat first at the Memorial Fields Ground.

Sweden’s opening batters had reached 18 before the Isle of Man made the breakthrough with a brilliant piece of fielding by Joe Humphrey, running out Chandreth Rehal.

The other Swedish opener Yatharth Chauhan was then caught by Toby Poole-Wilson off Nathan Williams’s off-spin bowling and, with captain Dollin Jansen’s fast, accurate left-arm bowling restricted the run scoring opportunities at the other end, Sweden were finding runs hard to score.

Jansen’s opening four overs eventually went for only eight runs.

Sweden began to repair the damage with a partnership of 54 for the third wicket between Kavinshankar Meenakshisundaram and Marshal Khan before Poole-Wilson caught Khan off his own bowling.

Although wicketkeeper Anish Pilpakhare posted a defiant 50, wickets consistently fell at the other end, with Fraser Clarke picking up two of the wickets to fall, and Sweden ultimately clawed their way to 196 for nine from their 50 overs.

The target was well within the Isle of Man’s range and the Manx innings got off to an excellent start with openers Jansen and Humphrey posting a 50 partnership for the first wicket.

Although Humphrey was out for 13, that only brought Luke Ward to the crease.

He and Jansen set about the Swedish bowling with a rapid partnership of 78 for the second wicket.

Both Jansen and Ward reached 50, with Ward’s coming from only 39 balls.

Although Ward was out for 52, and Sweden also trapped wicketkeeper Christian Webster for 17, Jansen was joined at the crease by Henry Telford and the partnership for the fourth wicket saw the Isle of Man reach the target in the 34th over to win by seven wickets with 16 overs to spare.

Jansen was named the ICC Man of the Match, scoring an unbeaten 81 from only 94 balls in a captain’s innings that included 12 fours but he was backed up by a strong fielding and bowling performance that undoubtedly set up the victory.

The islanders followed this up with an eight-wicket victory over Norway on Saturday.

Jansen was again influential with bat and ball, claiming three wickets and finishing with 61 not out as they Isle of Man restricted Norway to 101. The Manx knocked the chase off inside 11 overs.

The competition continues this week.

More in Thursday’s Manx Independent.