Nussbaumer and Hooper skittle Bahrain to give Guernsey victory on opening day

Guernsey bowling duo Jamie Nussbaumer and David Hooper ensured that the Channel Island got off to a winning start today at the Pepsi ICC World Cricket League Division 5 (WCL Div. 5). The duo ripped through the Bahrain batting order to dismiss the entire team for 49 in under 14 overs. GH Smit, Jeremy Frith and Ross Kneller then knocked off the target to give the side a nine-wicket victory.

Host Singapore made its intentions clear for the tournament by defeating Cayman Islands by 80 runs in a reduced overs match, displaying good skills with bat and ball. Meanwhile, Malaysia despite an interruption for rain beat Argentina by 47 runs in its reduced overs fixture.

At the famous Singapore Cricket Club, Guernsey made light work of dismissing Bahrain with fast bowler Nussbaumer proving the pick of the bowlers with match figures of 6-1-19-5. The 24-year-old Guernsey-born player dismissed the entire top order of Shahzad Ahmed, Adnan Butt and Azeem ul Haq, with the opener Shahzad departing on the opening ball of the match.

Nussbaumer was ably assisted in his quest for wickets by medium-pacer Hooper whose tight bowling saw the 20-year-old snap up three wickets for just one run as he dismissed key middle-order batsman Adil Hanif.

Nussbaumer continued to bowl straight and with aggression and removed key all-rounder Tahir Dar to put Bahrain in an even deeper mess in muggy conditions at the Singapore Cricket Club and eventually the whole side departed for just 49 runs in 13.5 overs.

In reply, it took Guernsey just 12.5 overs to reach the required 50 but not before opener GH Smit departed for 13 runs after edging to the wicketkeeper. It was then up to Kneller and all-rounder Frith to complete proceedings and secure victory for the island.

Man of the match Nussbaumer said: "It was a good pitch and definitely seamer friendly in comparison to Dubai where we were before we got to Singapore. It's always nice when the ball is jumping around a bit and I was just getting it into the right areas.

"We played with good intensity and it was always going to be hard for Bahrain to come out to bowl after we had skittled them for so little and you can't blame their bowlers for the result."

"I tried to play to my normal game and stick to the normal areas of hitting top of off and the pitched helped me to do that and claim the five wickets.

"Tomorrow we're playing hosts Singapore which we know is going to be a tough game. Today gave us a boost for sure but it's a new day tomorrow and we have to play our best against the hosts who are definitely one of the favourites for the event," added Nussbaumer.

At Kallang, host Singapore began its World Cricket League run with a win over Cayman Islands in a rain-delayed fixture.

Having started well in the humid conditions, Singapore's openers made good progress, with former captain Chetan Suryawanshi contributing 42 runs to the total alongside Chaminda Ruwan before the former departed with 67 runs on the board.

Cayman Islands' fast bowling policeman Ryan Bovell enticed Suryawanshi into a big hit only for the wicketkeeper-batsman to be caught by Alistair Ifill. Some good catches by Ainsley Hall behind the stumps saw Ruwan and Buddhika Mendis depart and just as Anish Param and Kshitij Shinde began to add crucial runs, the heavens opened over Singapore and the players were forced off the field.

After an extended lunch interval, play resumed with the overs reduced to 32 overs and Duckworth-Lewis demanding Abali Hoilett's side to make 203 in the shortened match.

It was a task the Caymanians were going to struggle to make against the host who are considered favourites for the event in their capital. Captain Saad Khan of Singapore combined with former captain Suryawanshi to dismiss opener Hall and from there on in the Cayman Islands were in trouble.

Much to the excitement of the local support, wickets began to tumble at Kallang with Param making an athletic leap to catch Ramon Sealy and dismiss the 20-year-old for a duck off the bowling of Dharmichand Mulewa while Mulewa promptly clean-bowled Pearson Best three balls later.

Singapore's in-form wicketkeeper-batsman, Suryawanshi, then stumped Ryan Bovell off the bowling of Mulewa to have Cayman Islands reeling at 6-58. A cameo by Conroy Wright with the bat saw the 26-year-old bowler smash five sixes to finish the game 46 not out, but Wright's efforts were not enough and ultimately the side ran out of overs in chasing the hefty target of 203 and Singapore won its first game of Pepsi ICC WCL Div. 5.

Singapore coach Trevor Chappell said: "I'm pleased with how we performed today, we showed some good batting early on and good running between the wickets which was positive from us.

"Bowling wise was mostly good, there was some good hitting by Wright towards the end but the game was pretty much in our control by that point. We just perhaps threw the ball around a bit too much in the field risking overthrows which meant we missed the odd chance that could have made a difference."

Chappell admitted facing Guernsey tomorrow was going to be a tough game, commenting: "They are one of the key challnegers for the title along with Malaysia. Our next two games are very important.

"Perhaps for Guernsey having such a quick win today may not help them tomorrow as it means they haven't had as good a workout as us. That being said, they're a tough opposition that we will take seriously in our game."

Meanwhile, Cayman Islands coach Theo Cuffy took some positives from the side's first loss of the tournament commenting: "I think we still need to feel ourselves with the wickets here and the way it plays, because we found it a little difficult with the bounce while both batting and bowling. I think we need to get used to it pretty quickly if we're going to stand any chance of doing well in this event.

"Our bowlers need to understand that the pitches here are not going to be as helpful as back in Cayman Islands but nevertheless I felt we came back into the game and our batting did well despite the big Duckworth-Lewis target. I think we did well today, we need to regroup and come back stronger tomorrow."

Cayman Islands will face Malaysia tomorrow; a side Cuffy admits will provide a tough challenge. "We need to win the next four games and our intention is to play Singapore in the final. We know nothing about Malaysia, we will play it by the ear and we're going to stick to our game plan and hopefully it works out for us," said the Trinidadian.

In the final game of the day, at Indian Association Ground ? Malaysia took on Argentina in a game that was ultimately reduced to 29 overs by Duckworth-Lewis after rain also delayed proceedings for the two sides.

Malaysia managed to make 210 in 44.5 overs despite a middle-order batting collapse that saw key batsmen Ahmed Faiz, Suhan Alagaratnam and Anwar Arudin all depart for low scores after a fine spell with the ball by Argentine captain Esteban MacDermott and Hernan Fennell.

Opener Shafiq Sharif alongside Rakesh Madhavan made good progress to begin things, with the latter not departing till 50 runs were on the board after nine overs. But a flurry of wickets and some fine bowling from Matias Paterlini meant that the Division 6 qualifiers were looking on the back-foot against the Latin American side.

Rain interrupted proceedings after the first two overs of the Argentina innings, which meant the game was reduced in overs and D/L required MacDermott's men to make 162 runs in 29 overs.

Malaysia made the target difficult for the team to chase, with poor running between the wickets by three of Argentina's top order. Pablo Ferguson, Gary Savage and Martin Siri were all run-out by some nifty work behind the stumps from Shafiq while Hiran Ralalage trapped opener Grant Dugmore leg-before.

The target was ultimately too stiff for Argentina's batsmen with some tight bowling by Malaysia's well-practised bowling unit. MacDermott's side fell 47 runs short of the target awarding Suresh Navaratnam's team its first victory of the tournament.

Live scores for all the fixtures can be followed at www.icc-cricket.com

The results table can be viewed here.

The full schedule for WCL Div. 5 can be found here

Scores in brief (Day One)Kallang (Reduced to 32 overs due to rain interruption)Singapore 141-3, 34 overs (Suryawanshi 42, Param 28 not out)Cayman Islands 122-8, 32 overs (Wright 46 not out; Mulewa 3-12, Amjad 2-19)Singapore won by 80 runs (Duckworth-Lewis method)Man of the Match: Chetan Suryawanshi (Singapore)Singapore Cricket ClubBahrain 49 all out, 13.5 overs (Nussbaumer 5-19, Hooper 3-1)Guernsey 50-1, 12.5 overs (Smit 13, Kneller 14 not out, Frith 8 not out)Guernsey won by nine wicketsMan of the Match: Jamie Nussbaumer (Guernsey)Indian Association (Reduced to 29 overs due to rain delay)Malaysia 210 all out, 44.5 overs (Shafiq 61, Ralalage 31; M Paterlini 3-50)Argentina 114-7, 29 overs (Ferguson 27, M Paterlini 26 not out; Ghulam 2-24)Malaysia won by 47 runs (Duckworth-Lewis method)Man of the Match: Shafiq Sharif (Malaysia)