Two contrasting matches at Marsa last weekend first saw Marsa Select whitewash the Swansea University Touring XI and the following day the result had a convincing win for the tourists.
In the T20 match, the University side found themselves in difficulty from the start as they were down three wickets for only 15 runs.
A superb piece of fielding from Frank Spiteri saw wicket-keeper Sam Aquilina whip off the bails for an early run out. D. Scott (44) and J. Peeke (18), batting in the middle order, steadied the team and produced some runs. Tail-enders R. Verrier (11) and J. Storer (8) took the team score to 123 for seven.
Marsa used nine bowlers and the wickets were shared between Ahmed Akbar (two), and one each for Spiteri, G. Lobban, N. Khosla and guest player Jamie Ancilleri.
In reply, openers Sam Aquilina (33 off 17 balls) and B. Arora (25 off 10 balls) were in full flow with the bat, scoring four sixes and five fours between them. Spiteri (14), Majeed (26) and Mark Sacco (19) finished the game off in 13 overs.
For Swansea, C. Lamb bowled superbly, taking three wickets for only 14 runs.
On Saturday, the Univeristy team changed a few of their players for the 40-overs match. They won the toss and elected to bat first with O. Hills and R. Ravel.
Ravel (five runs) was caught at mid-off by Feroz, which brought J. Peeke to the crease. He scored his half century and shortly after, when on 55 and forming a partnership of 99 runs, decided to reverse sweep a ball passing wide on his leg side and in doing so hit a catch back to the bowler Lobban.
Man of the match Hills went on to score a century, hitting 16 fours and two sixes along the way to his tally of 138 runs. He was outstumped on the last ball of the innings. The University team totaled 229 runs for seven.
For Marsa, Lobban took three wickets and Bradley two.
On paper, Marsa Select was short of batsmen although the total was reachable if the innings were paced well.
The visitors had other ideas though and opened with the strong pace attack of P. Davis, W. Treloar and A. Shaw.
They bowled accurately dismissing the top four Marsa batsmen – Wheeler (5), Ahmed Akbar (0), P Flynn (0) and Grima (16) – cheaply.
A. Naudi threatened to attack the bowling, but after he fell for 25 runs and the score on 62 for six, it was left to the final four batsmen to play the remaining 20 overs out.
However, in the 28th over the final wicket fell with the score on 150. Marsa lost by 79 runs. The bowling honours went to J. Platt who took five wickets.
The Summer League gets underway on Saturday with the match between Marauders and Melita (10.30am). Krishna play Marsa on Sunday at 10.30am.