From heroics to heartbreak. Such was the rollercoaster day for the Jersey cricket team, who started the day with the greatest win of their cricketing history, but ended it watching as Italy qualified ahead of them despite losing to the Netherlands.

Jersey captain Chuggy Perchard won the toss in that morning game against Scotland and put his opponents in to bat, with both teams knowing that the losers of the match would be eliminated. And some inspired bowling up front by the captain, Harrison Carlyon and Ben Ward had Scotland reeling on 64-6.

Jersey celebrate a wicket (ICC)

A 61 run partnership between Matthew Cross and Mark Watt got Scotland back into the game and their eventual total was 133-7.

Jersey's chase was led early on by Nick Greenwood who scored 49 from 36 balls as part of a 53 run partnership for the second wicket with Zak Tribe. Wickets then began to fall regularly, but crucially, Jersey kept scoring runs and were keeping up with the required rate, needing 13 from the last two overs with four wickets in hand.

Ben Ward scored two from the first ball, with a dot following. Patrick Gouge wanted a quick single from the next ball but Ward sent him back and he was short of his ground. A dot from the next ball preceded Ward loosening the pressure with a big six. But from the last ball of the over he went for a quick single to try and keep the strike and Dom Blampied was run out.

So to the last over with two wickets in hand and five runs needed. Safyaan Sharif bowled it and after starting with a dot, he had Ward caught in the deep from the second ball. Number 11 Jake Dunford ran two from his first ball, and a single from his second. Captain Perchard brought the scores level from the penultimate delivery before Dunford took a single to secure the one wicket win for the Channel Islanders.

That, remarkably, meant that Jersey were in with a chance to qualify, depending on the result of the Italy v Netherlands match. They needed Italy to win, or Netherlands to win by a big margin.

Italy captain Joe Burns won the toss in that match and chose to bat first, hoping to get runs on the board. Things didn't go too well at the start with both openers out cheaply and Italy finding themselves firmly on the back foot on 46-4.

Brothers Harry and Ben Manenti added 45 for the fifth wicket before both fell in quick succession. Grant Stewart and Anthony Mosca added another 38 for the seventh wicket with Stewart scoring 25 from 16 balls. Italy's final total was 134-7, with Italy knowing that they just had to take the chase to a 15th over to secure qualification.

Italy celebrating (ICC)

But the Dutch came out all guns blazing with the opening pair of Michael Levitt and Max O'Dowd putting on 71 in 7.3 overs before Levitt was out for 34. The run scoring slowed down enough to ensure that Italy qualified though, with O'Dowd and Scott Edwards taking another nine overs to score the remaining runs and secure the nine wicket win.

Heartbreak for Jersey then, but delight for Netherlands and Italy, the latter of whom are going to a World Cup for the first time. As for Scotland, just over 12 months since they played World Cup games against England and Australia, they will have to start qualification for the 2028 tournament at the same level as Gibraltar, Malta and Bulgaria. Such are the fine margins of associate cricket.