Series even

The touring season in Malta started last weekend with the visit of Al Ansar CC, a team from Birmingham, England.

They were here for the first time to play a two-game series against Marsa.

Al Ansar won the toss and elected to bat first, on Saturday.

They were off to a bad start, however, losing two early wickets for a run apiece, one was bowled and the other a brilliant piece of fielding by Ronnie Sacco who had the batsman run out.

Imran, the Al Ansar captain, top-scored for the visitors with 49 runs before being caught. Hamid was next best with 37 as two other batsmen made it over ten runs, Usman (13) and Fayyaz (12), before the team was bowled out for 159 runs.

For Marsa, Mike Caruana and Ronnie Sacco claimed two wickets each.

The host team was rather slow in their reply.

Nowell Khosla scored 31 runs from 46 balls and Mark G. Sacco added 22 from 74 balls. The pressure was all on the middle order but they all collapsed, none making more than ten runs.

With two wickets remaining and 48 runs needed off 42 balls, Caruana joined Andy Lenard at the crease. They were a source of inspiration and succeeded in the task even though in the end there was only one ball left when the run target was reached.

The two Marsa batsmen scored 25 runs each off 27 balls.

For Al Ansar, Hamid (three) and Nassar (two) were the pick of the bowlers.

On Sunday, Al Ansar batted first after winning the toss. They piled an impressive score of 194 runs.

Imran, again, top-scored with 62 runs as other contributions came from Ghazanfar (32), Asfar (26) and Usman (21).

For Marsa, Ian Pendlebury impressed, taking four wickets, and Tony Slater was also in form after felling three.

Marsa were unable to match the visitors’ tally and only managed 149 runs. Sarfraz Ali hit 41 runs but that was not enough to deny Al Ansar who had Waqqas and Imran claiming two wickets each.

The series was squared.