Hutchison calls for 'professionalism' as Jersey eye final

Jersey head coach Paul Hutchison says his side have to show their professionalism as they prepare for their final matches in their 2026 T20 World Cup qualifiers.

The islanders are the top seeds in Sub Regional Europe Qualifier Group B and have cruised to big wins over Serbia, Switzerland and Belgium in their first three pool games.

Victory over Croatia in their final, round robin game will see them qualify for Sunday's final with the winners progressing to the final round of qualifying next year.

"It's about the lads' professionalism and staying at a constant level where we don't worry about what the opposition is doing," Hutchison told BBC Sport.

"If we can focus on what we're doing and apply our skills to how we want to do it, then we can get the result that we want while staying at our standards and at our level."

Jersey scored more than 200 for the first time in a T20 international on Sunday when they beat Serbia by a then-record 165 runs.

They went on to better that a day later when they beat Switzerland by 167 runs before Belgium were beaten by 108 runs on Wednesday.

But the wins have seen different challenges, with Jersey losing wickets consistently in their last two matches, although the bowlers have impressed with no side scoring more than 90 runs against them.

"It's nice to be able to play with the freedom that we spoke about in team meetings and get the wins that we want," added Hutchison, who is in charge of Jersey at his first tournament after taking over the side earlier this year.

"Game one is probably how you'd want to win a game because there's less stress around it.

"But in tournaments, sometimes you need to get all the players some game time and time in the middle, so game two - while being a very different win - was probably what we need in the middle of the tournament."