The remaining match from the first round of the 2012-13 Winter League was played at the oval last weekend with the two contenders on the day, Marsa and Melita, producing a run feast in their search for their first win in the tournament.

Marsa batted first and after losing the wicket of Tony Azzopardi early in the innings, the rest of the batsmen started collecting the runs.

Haroon Majeed was first to blaze his fine willow and scored 39 runs from 30 balls, his tally including eight fours before being bowled.

Frank Spiteri then became the first man in the current Winter League tournament to hit 50 runs in the same match, retiring after 40 balls (local rule), ending with 52 runs. Joy Ghoseroy (49, five fours) and Derek Ali (44, three fours and two sixes) also retired.

Daniel Galea, who came through the academy, managed to add five runs for the second game in a row.

For the Melita bowlers, who toiled hard, only Chris Riordan and Sumair Khan were able to claim a wicket as Marsa totalled a mammoth 226 runs in their overs.

The Melita reply started on shaky grounds. In fact, they lost Andy Naudi (12) and Simo Lavender (no runs) early in the innings.

But the other batsmen battled hard with Sumair Khan (57) and Robert Krishna (55) both doing well to lift the team’s hopes.

Sam Aquilina chipped in with 24 runs.

In the end, the Melita score looked pretty respectable at 175 runs but still short of their target.

Marsa won the game and earned 13 points while Melita had to settle for three.

After the first round, Krishna head the table with 18 points, Marsa follow on 14 and Melita have five.

Frank Spiteri (Marsa) leads the run-scoring charts with 92 while Derek Ali (Marsa) and Bikram Arora (Krishna) claimed the most wickets so far, six apiece.