Games aplenty as Marsa take on two visiting teams

Over the weekend, Marsa played against touring team Brampton Bryan & Leintwardine from the UK.

On Saturday, the forty-over scheduled game was over within 40 overs. BBLCC won the toss and elected to bat first.

The Marsa bowlers were well on top and only one player made it into double figures, Stan Barnett who made 21 runs. His side was bowled out for 55 runs.

Gordon Hewitt and John Rusher were the main wicket takers for the home side. Hewitt took two wickets and no runs were taken from his four-and-a-half overs. Rusher took his two in consecutive balls and remains on a hat-trick the next time he bowls against a touring team.

The Marsa opening batsmen, John Grima and M.G. Sacco, made the required runs within 10 overs. Sacco made most of the play, scoring 43 runs including four fours. Grima made eight runs while there were five extras. An excellent win for the Marsa team.

With plenty of game time left in the day, a twenty-over match was played. This time players from both sides were mixed into two teams. The Marsa mixed team batted first and scored 120 runs from their 20 overs.

Ronnie Sacco top scored with 57 runs and Derek Ali made 36. Mike Caruana was the main wicket taker with three. In reply, the BBLCC fell short by 27 runs with Caruana leading the scoring with 28 runs and John Grima making 18. For the Marsa mix, seven bowlers took a wicket each and there were three run outs.

On Sunday, a glorious game of cricket was played. Again it was decided to keep the mix selection.

The BBLCC batted first. Nowell Khosla produced one of the best opening innings any opener has played in a long while. He scored a massive 151 runs from a total of 234, hitting 11 fours and four sixes along the way.

Javed Shah was next top scorer with 31 runs. For the Marsa mix, Barnett was the main wicket taker with four wickets while Graham Bunting took three.

The Marsa mix reply started off modestly with Frank Spiteri and Robert Wells making 33 runs each and John Grima making 20.

With 13 overs to go, the Marsa side needed 109 runs for victory, no easy task. Alas, they had Andy Lenard batting with them and he took the game away from the BBLCC. Lenard's personal score was 108 not out including 10 fours. The target was reached with two balls remaining.

Last Thursday, Marsa took on the HMS Lancaster in a twenty-over game. The Marsa team batted first and totalled 120 runs. Andy Naudi scored half those runs and Lenard made 19 of them. For the HMS, Smith was the main wicket taker with three wickets.

In reply, the HMS Lancaster batsmen made the required runs off the last ball of the innings, with Bryan scoring 27 runs, Hart 22 and Smith top scoring with 39 runs not out. The main wicket takers for Marsa were Lenard and Hewitt with two each.