Krishna halt Marsa's stride in Summer League

Krishna were over with their injuries last weekend to produce a superb display that halted Marsa's five-match winning streak in the 2006 Summer League.

Winning the toss Krishna opted to bat. Opener John Grima batted through his 30 balls and retired on 44 runs. He later returned and made a further 12 to take his tally to 56 including eight 4s. Frank Spiteri, the other opening batsman, made 22 runs off 13 balls before being caught in the outfield.

The other high score was extras - 32 - ten leg byes and a costly 22 wides which turned out to be Marsa's downfall. For them, Kevin Krishna bowled extremely well and was rewarded with five wickets as Krishna totalled 178 runs.

Sarfraz Ali opened the batting with Alan Kyle. They both retired with 38 and 36 respectively.

Mike Caruana was bowled for 13 and Ronnie Sacco 27. Mark G. Sacco made 24 runs. Marsa only had 156 runs in the end, losing the game by 22.

Krishna only bowled ten wides. They earned eight points for the win while Marsa only got two.

In the second game of the day, Melita batted first against Overseas.

Nadeem Ashraf top-scored with an impressive 65 from 35 balls. He hit eight 4s and a 6. Melita's total was 154 runs from their allotted overs. Javed Iqbal was Overseas's most effective wicket-taker with two wickets.

Overseas made hard work of the run chase. With three overs to go they needed 11 runs to win and only one wicket remaining.

Mike Smith made nine runs off the first three balls leaving the remaining two in the hands of last batsman Roy Newbould. Overseas were tense as they watched Jeya Krishna steaming in to bowl but were all overjoyed with the four runs which Newbould hit to secure victory.

Smith had 62 runs as Overseas earned nine points for their win and Melita got two.

Next Saturday, Marsa play Melita in the first game while Overseas take on Krishna in a crunch match between two sides looking to maintain the pressure on league leaders Marsa.