Trial match for combined team

On Saturday, a combined select team, composed of players vying for a spot in the national team ahead of next year's European Cricket Council's Division Three championships, played against The Rest in a 40-over game.

The combined team won the toss and elected to bowl first.

Opener Dave Newton had The Rest in big trouble taking two early wickets and then coming back to bowl towards the end of the innings and taking another two.

Justin Brooke and Nadeem Ashraf batted well for their team, scoring 42 and 45 runs respectively. Faraaz Bhatti chipped in with 27 in a total of 154 runs.

For the combined team, Sarfraz Ali and Mike Caruana also felled two wickets each.

In reply, the combined team made the runs required in the 32nd over. Nowell Khosla was the top scorer with 63 runs, including eight 4s. Ronnie Sacco scored 19, Javed Shah 34 and Dave Newton 13.

For The Rest, Adnal was the main wicket-taker with two.

The second game from the series will be played on Saturday, starting at 10 a.m.

In the Division Three championships, Malta were paired with Israel, Spain, Isle of Man, Belgium and Portugal.

The tentative dates for the tournament are August 17-22.