Opening wins for Marsa, Krishna

On Saturday, the Globalair Summer Cricket League commenced with Marsa taking on Melita in the first matches and Overseas playing Krishna in the second. The league is structured on the 20-over game. All matches are played at the Marsa Cricket Ground.

Marsa won the toss and elected to bat first. Mike Caruana was the first wicket to fall, being brilliantly caught by Tim Edwards who had to run in a couple of metres and lunged forward to catch the ball inches from the ground.

Caruana scored 10 runs. Sarfraz Ali was next to go, hitting eight runs and Chris Naudi soon followed scoring 12 from nine balls. Ronnie Sacco (39 not out) and John Grima (32 not out) batted through till the end of the innings. The Marsa side totalled a mere 114 runs.

For Melita, Martin Llewellyn produced one of the best bowling spells one will see in a twenty-20 game. He took two wickets for 14 runs from five overs.

Melita opened with Tim Edwards and Frank Spiteri. Edwards was first to go being given lbw for 11 runs.

The Marsa team's hopes rose when Dave Newton bowled Spiteri for 14. Andy Lenard made 16 and an impressive knock from Stephen Blythe who compiled 30 had the Marsa team rattled.

The Marsa team were able to control the game and ended up winners by 10 runs. Caruana was the main wicket taker with three for the Marsa side. Marsa earned seven points from the win while Melita are yet to open their account.

In the second game, Overseas batted first and also chalked up a score of 114 runs. The top scorer was Stuart Lloyd with 64 runs. As the Marsa team had won in the first game, the Overseas side were optimistic about prevailing in theirs.

They were overjoyed when Joy Ghoseroy was out for a duck. Sam Dhandapani (55 runs) had other ideas and guided his team to a fairly easy victory in which the required score was made in the 16th over. Krishna gained seven points for the win.

This week, the Marsa team will be playing against two returning touring teams. Marsa take on Sinsen CC from Norway first, with games to be played tomorrow at 10.30 a.m. and on Friday at 4.30 p.m.

On Saturday, Marsa's game against Old Pauline CC will start at 10.30 a.m.