Over the weekend, Marsa CC played against a selection representing Catalunya who were managed by Muhammad Adnan Khan. Their contingent was led by president Khalid Shabaz Akhtar.

Catalunya turned out to be one of the best teams which the locals have played against for a number of years at the Marsa oval. In fact, the visitors returned home unbeaten from three matches.

The two teams opened the series on Friday with a 20-over game where Catalunya batted first. They chalked up a reasonable score of 154 runs.

The main scorers were M. Bashrat, 35, T. Kazim, 29, A. Zia, 26, and A. Shakcor, 23.

For Marsa, Nowell Khosla took three wickets and Haroon Majeed and Bikram Arora felled two each.

Marsa were bowled out for 82 runs with only Arora providing some sort of resistance with 38.

Z. Haider and N. Ahmed took three wickets each.

The next day, the two teams figured in a 40-over game.

Catalunya batted first and put up a very challenging score of 259 runs. A. Khan top-scored with 69 runs as Nisal Ahmed had 66 and Kazim 46 in the run feast. Arora took four wickets and Sarfraz Ali three.

In the run chase, Arora had 32 runs, Majeed 24, Simon Lavendar 22, and Khosla and Singh 22 apiece.

However, none of them went on to add more runs to their totals and the home team had to settle for 190 runs, not enough to match their opponents’ fine effort.

The final game on Sunday saw both teams producing their best batting displays in the series.

Catalunya were first at the crease and they had two century scores – Khan (121) and Asif (140).

Their total at the end of the allocated overs was 355 runs.

The Marsa batting was led by Khosla. He played superbly but was a whisker away from a 100, falling just two runs short in an innings which included 11 fours and a six.

John Callus supported Khosla well with a 36 as Arora made 48 runs. Marsa reached a remarkable 250 but their contribution was in vain as Tanvir Ahmed took three wickets and Mohsin two for Catalunya to complete the whitewash.

Next up for Marsa are new touring team, Emporers, in a two-game series.

Sign up to our free newsletters

Get the best updates straight to your inbox:
Please select at least one mailing list.

You can unsubscribe at any time by clicking the link in the footer of our emails. We use Mailchimp as our marketing platform. By subscribing, you acknowledge that your information will be transferred to Mailchimp for processing.