Marsa CC beat Ibstone

Over the weekend, Marsa CC took on two teams from the UK.

On Saturday, Ibstone CC won the toss and elected to bowl. John Grima and Joy Ghoseroy opened the batting. Ghoseroy was caught behind in the second over for no runs. Grima went on to make 24. Nowell Khosla top-scored for the locals with 37 including three 4s.

Next best score was extras - 33. Nadeem Ashraf batted well for 26, including two 6s as Marsa totalled 135, being bowled out in the 35th over from 40.

G. Bridges was the best bowler for the visitors. He took four wickets for 12 runs.

In an amazing turn-about, Marsa went on to bowl out Ibstone CC for 107 runs. The team was inspired by Pierre Naudi's one-handed catch to dismiss R. Emmett for eight. M. Barrow hit 39 runs including a 6 and four 4s. Two other Ibstone batsmen made it to double figures - G. Crowder (11) and W. Downing (17).

Nadeem Ashraf was Marsa's top bowler, taking two wickets.

On Sunday Marsa played against Reading Blue Coat School. The hosts lost the toss and were asked to bowl first.

Ben Hurst was first to go, bowled for no runs but then Jake Richardson and Sam Hirst put on a match-winning partnership of 118 runs.

Richardson ended being caught for 50 and Hirst was run out for 57. Jack Harris chipped in with a valuable 32.

For Marsa, Mike Caruana was the most successful bowler with three wickets. The Blue Coats' total was 221 from the 50 overs allotted.

After a slow start in their reply, wickets began to fall for Reading.

Colin Willis made seven runs, Robert Krishna top-scored with 29, Tim Wheeler was out without facing a ball and Javed Shah made 20 runs.

The middle order of Mike Smith, Mike Caruana and Nowell Khosla all failed and left the lower order struggling. Marsa only managed 129 runs.

The next game from the two-game series will be played tomorrow.

Next weekend, Marsa take on returning team Cryptics XI in a two-game series.