Best players of the series – Ian Forrester (left) and Sam Aquilina.

Marsa Cricket Club have just hosted another touring team from the UK for a three-match series. This time it was the 14th Regiment Royal Artillery XI to compete in the Maltese summer heat.

A T20 match saw the RRA XI batting first. The innings see-sawed with a brilliant start for the openers (C. Ross 40, S. Govender 32), a middle order collapse (six wickets for 22 runs) and then a flurry of runs during the final two overs (K. Ramage 12, J. Wheeler 8).

The visitors were all out for 142 in 20 overs.

For Marsa, Clyde Rossouw took four wickets for 19 runs.

Marsa skipper Tony Azzo-pardi (26) opened the batting and attacked for a win but was left embarrassingly standing at his crease on his own as the next three wickets (J. Rossouw 0, J. Grima 0 and H. Majeed 2) fell for two runs using up 20 balls.

With accurate bowling to face and a shortage of overs left, it was an uphill task for Sam Aquilina (23) and Andy Naudi (six) to chase the runs and sure enough the Marsa team fell short by 13 runs.

The bowling honours went to Ian Forrester – four overs, three wickets for six runs.

Saturday’s second game was a 40-over and yet again the visitors outplayed the young Marsa Select side.

The hosts batted first and scored 143 in 38 overs. RRA XI only needed 22 overs to win the game convincingly by four wickets.

So, with the series lost, Marsa needed a win in the third game to avoid a whitewash.

Sunday’s game was reduced to 30 overs due to excessive heat. The visitors won the toss and elected to bat first, piling more pressure on Marsa with their opening partnership.

C. Ross (17) and M. Cook (69) combined to amass 72 runs in 10 overs.

Wicket-keeper John Grima’s dropped catch in the early overs proved costly but Marsa managed to pull the reins back on the galloping visitors. Their innings total was held to 178-7.

In-form Aquilina opened the batting with Tim Wheeler.

But wickets started to tumble. A frustrated Aquilina (87) was again left at the crease just short of his century and seeing the Marsa team lose again, this time by 15 runs with two overs left.

So, Marsa CC had to wave the white flag.

RRA XI captain and man of the series Forrester only had praise for both teams, the players and tournament organisation during his short speech.

He later joined his fellow team-mates and Marsa players for light refreshments to cool off.