Stockport complete 4-0 whitewash of Marsa

Over the past week Marsa CC played against Stockport Grammar School (SGS) in a four-game series. Stockport were on their seventh tour to the island.

The first match was on Wednesday where the toss was won by SGS and they elected to bowl first in the 40-over contest. Marsa were bowled out for 158 runs.

Top scorer was Tim Wheeler with 61 runs followed by Mike Caruana with 28 and Chris Naudi, 17. For SGS the outstanding bowler was M. Barrow with three wickets.

In reply, the tourists made the runs in 27 overs with Barrow pulling off 18 runs, T. Isherwood 63 not out, T. Radford 36 and S. Jones 34 not out. SGS took a 1-0 lead.

In Thursday's game, Marsa were on a high-scoring 267 runs from their 40 overs. Caruana top scored with 83 runs, Mike Smith had 41 runs, Chris Naudi 36 and John Grima 44 runs.

For SGS, A. Greasly and J.H. Jones were the best wicket takers with two wickets each. Marsa's high dropped to a low as Stockport chased down the runs with an over to spare.

Barrow scored 58 runs, Isherwood 53, Radford 44, Jones 62 runs not out and Greasley 37 not out. Two nil to the tourists.

On Saturday, Marsa again started on a high, keeping the Stockport batsmen to 218 runs from the 40 overs bowled. Another fantastic performance had Barrow top scoring with 91 runs not out and Griffiths amassing 44.

Marsa's reply was on track until the 10th over with Smith contributing 43 runs and Mike Caruana 20. Marsa's middle order and tail enders collapsed and the home team were bowled out for 153 runs. The main wicket takers were E. Needham with three wickets and Barrow with two as Stockport moved 3-0 up.

The final game was played on Sunday. Stockport batted first and totaled 254 runs at the end of their overs. The innings of the series was played by Needham who scored 130 runs not out.

For Marsa, young Sunny Krishna was the first bowler to take two wickets against Stockport. Marsa's reply was short by 32 runs, Grant Williams leading the way with 47 runs, Krishna 45, Sam Dhandapani 30 and Javed Shah 23.

Stockport thus completed a 4-0 whitewash. Greasley was the main wicket taker with three wickets while H. Ladd and Barrow took two each.

Next Saturday, the Globalair Summer league continues with a match between Marsa and Overseas.