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Ireland U17 v Jersey U17: 50 over match played at Milverton on Wednesday 4th August

For the first time in years I drove to Milverton through town and not round the M50.  The outstanding change was in and around Ballymun, where there were some interesting pieces of architecture.  Concrete plazas of a sunny summer's day are one thing, but on a rainy winter's evening?

When I arrived, play had already begun and been interrupted by a shower in the first of three Under 17 challenge matches between Ireland and Jersey.  The format is that of 50 over ODIs.  Whatever happened to winning the toss, batting, and declaring when you thought you had enough?  I suppose that went out with the Ballymun flats.

Jersey were batting, and Corne Bodenstein and Will Falle were coping competently with the bowling of Jordan Coghlan and Barry McCarthy, but were getting very few opportunities to score boundaries.  Bodenstein lost patience and his shape, leaden-footedly wafting McCarthy to Ben Wylie for 13.

A few runs later McCarthy's aggression again paid off when Falle, 15, gave a catch to skipper Andy McBrine.  Jersey skipper Aiden McGuire was joined by left-hander Danny Kearns, and the pair batted really well against the Ireland spinners, the tall McGuire aggressively while Kearns was more circumspect.

McBrine had to leave the field after bowling two overs – a stomach upset was one explanation, a back strain another – either way he never reappeared.  Ben Wylie put in a very tidy spell of slow left-arm from the road end while Adam Coughlan kept it tight from the Blackhills end with his off breaks.

McCarthy was brought back from the Blackhills end, fed McGuire a couple of pies to take him to 39, then hustled one onto him that he skied to Adam Berry.  Corey Bisson made seven before being bowled by Scott Campbell.  This brought in Alex Cooke, and the two left-handers gradually upped the pace.

Wylie was far less impressive bowling to two left-handers, Ross Adair bowled two good overs before the Channel Islanders worked him out, and then he, Campbell and Wylie were the victims of increasingly fluent batting.  Kearns took one too many liberty and was bowled by Adair for 63.

The return of Jordan Coghlan slowed the Jersey innings up a little, and Cooke was denied his half-century when run out for 47 backing up over-enthusiastically trying to get the strike.  The innings closed on 215-6, with McCarthy returning 3/34 and there were tidy figures for Coghlan (0/20 off 9) and Coughlan (0/20 off 7).

Nobody knew how good a score this was because only Jersey knew how good their bowling was.  The left-handed Bodenstein and the right-handed Michael Medway weren't bad, the former bowling a good line and length, the latter much less disciplined but much more likely to bowl a good delivery with swing and/or seam.

This was my first view of Adam Berry and Ryan Hunter, and I was impressed.  The right-handed Berry bats classically, while the chunky left-hander murders anything short.  First change Paul McCafferty was pretty decent, too, but the Irish batsmen progressed at a rate of fives.

Berry was bowled by Medway for 32 out of 59 to bring Adam Coughlan to the crease.  I've seen the Malahide player before, and he added forty with Hunter before the left-hander was caught off McCafferty for 41.  Ross Adair is another who bats very correctly, and made 15 good runs before holing out off the persistent McCafferty.

Scott Campbell settled in while Coughlan tucked into the inceasingly frequent loose deliveries.  He had reached 42 when he didn't spot Charlie Fricker's arm ball and was bowled.  Campbell opened out and with Dhruv Kapoor took Ireland to the verge of victory.

Then Kapoor, much to his father's exasperation, plonked his front pad half forward, played round it and was lbw to Medway.  “He's always getting out that way – he's got to sort it out!”  McCarthy managed a single before Campbell made the winning hit to finish on 36* in the 41st over.

Medway took 2/49, McCafferty 2/31 and Fricker 1/29.  I was talking to the Jersey supporters afterwards, and said they were a bowler short.  They agreed, pointing out that they were missing not only a regular bowler but their first-choice keeper.  From a population of 86,000 they've assembled a pretty good side.

The future looks bright for Ireland – any time I've watched underage teams in the past there have been very good players on view, but also two or three well out of their depth.  At Milverton there wasn't a plonker in sight.  Obviously, across the island, lots of people are doing lots of things very well.