Marsa host Slovenian club Mezica for first time

Over the weekend, Marsa hosted Mezica, the first Slovenian cricket team to play here.

On Saturday, Marsa won the toss and elected to bat. Nowell Khosla opened the batting and scored 31 runs from 25 balls including three fours and a six before having to retire out.

John Grima notched up 14 runs before being well caught by Brument. Tim Wheeler top scored for the home side with 38 runs before he had to retire. Tony Slater batted well, scoring 23 runs.

The home side were aided with 38 extras and totalled 173 runs from their allotted overs. For the visitors, Pustoslemjek was the main wicket taker with two.

In reply, the Slovenian team were bowled out for 95 runs. They tried to make the runs the easy way and paid the price. Only Pustoslemjek made 50 runs, scoring more than half his team's total with plenty of pull shots which found the boundary. He scored nine fours in his innings.

Home side bowlers were led by Wheeler who ended up with amazing figures of four wickets for five runs from 21 balls bowled. Wheeler is on a hat-trick the next time he bowls against a touring team. Andy Lenard also bowled well taking three wickets for 11 runs from five overs bowled. Marsa won the first game of the two-match series.

A special mention goes to John Rusher who bowled his first over against a touring team and only went for three runs.

On Sunday, the home team won the toss again and again batted first. Faraaz Bhatti opened the batting and scored 33 runs. Mark G. Sacco also hit 33 while Khosla top scored with 42. The Marsa team only managed 166 runs from their allotted overs.

For Mezica, Rapacpeter took three wickets while Pustoslemjek took another two to add to his previous day's haul.

The visitors were more cautious with their shots than the previous day and managed to score 144 runs before being bowled out. Pustoslemjek, clearly their main player, scored 46 runs, Lajnik 21 and Rozej 12. The wickets were shared by the Marsa bowlers.

Marsa won the series 2-0.

Next Saturday, the Globalair Summer League continues with Krishna playing Melita at 11.30 a.m. and Marsa taking on Overseas at 3 p.m.

The academy/nursery activities will be from 9.30 till 11.30 a.m.