Marsa played the second game from the series against English side Ampthill Town, who were on their fourth visit to Malta, on Saturday.

In the first game, a 20-over contest played in midweek, Ampthill had totalled 108 runs with Nigel Lewin top-scoring with 25.

Marsa chased down the runs in the 19th over with Andy Naudi hitting 43 runs.

On Saturday, the host team batted first in the 40-over game with Frank Spiteri and Sunny Krishna opening the innings and producing a 53-run partnership before Spiteri was caught.

He had done most of the scoring, 35 runs, which included five fours and a six. Krishna went on to make 34.

Malcolm Crabbe played the innings of the day and top-scored with 55 as Derek Ali (24) and Nowell Khosla (28) were the other main run makers.

Marsa totalled a reasonable score of 205 runs. For Ampthill, Richard Blunt and Colin Ruddick took two wickets each.

The Ampthill reply was slow but steady with the opening batsmen setting up the chase while keeping wickets in hand for the crunch time towards the end.

Lewin made 37 runs and Nick Key 45 but the visitors suddenly started to lose wickets with Lee Archer adding 16, Richard Hardy 27 and Richard Blunt and John Marsh ten runs apiece.

Four other batsmen were unable to go beyond the double figures and the Ampthill chase ended at 183 runs.

The Marsa bowlers stuck to their task with Bikram Arora taking four wickets and Nowell Khosla three.

Next weekend, Marsa play Pribright CC in a two-game series.

The English side will be on their maiden tour to Malta.