It’s been a very busy week for cricket with two games against returning touring team Leo CC and the men’s and women’s summer leagues coming to an end.
Leo CC were looking to improve their performance on their previous visit to Malta when the series ended in a 1-1 draw.
On Tuesday, the home side batted first and made a reasonable score of 137 runs from their 20 overs.
Puneet Gupta top-scored with 39 runs, Malcolm Crabbe made 25 and Vinod Ramakrishna 26.
For Leo, Mitun was the pick of the bowlers taking three wickets, while Santosh took two. Amit and Sandeep picked a wicket each.
The visitors’ reply was steady but finally the overs ran out and Leo CC could only make 118 runs.
Bhavesh was the top scorer with 29 runs, Avnesh 28, Amit Chauhan 14 and Sachin Patel 13.
For the Marsa team, Gupta, Gordon Hewitt and Joy Ghoseroy took two wickets each while Crabbe and Sam Aquilina took a wicket each.
In Thursday’s game, Leo batted first and scored 127 runs. Again Bhavresh proved to be the better batsman with 38 runs. Mitun made 20 runs and Krishna 19.
Andy Naudi was the pick of the bowlers taking four wickets, Waseem Abbas and Crabbe claiming two each and Ewan Prezens one.
Some great batting from Bikram Arora (50 runs) and Haroon Majeed (30) made the run chase very easy with the home side reaching their target in the 18th over.
Aquilina batted well for 24 runs and Matt McKeogh made 10. Santosh was the only wicket taker for the visitors.
Marsa won the series 2-0.
In the Summer League, Melita forfeited their game against Krishna. Marsa finished first ahead of Krishna with Melita third and Overseas fourth.
On Sunday, the women’s Summer League continued with Overseas needing a win to push for a play-off game against Marsa.
The Marsa team batted first and totalled 134 runs, most of which were extras. Talitha Van Colen top-scored with 17 runs, Rachael Bezzina 14 and Taryn Butler eight.
For Overseas, Amy Caruana and Sara Ghoseroy took a wicket each.
At the halfway mark, Overseas were looking steady to win the game. The Marsa bowlers tightened up and Overseas ended on 117 runs with plenty of extras.
Amy Caruana was the top scorer with 11 runs, Ghoseroy made eight and Helen Caruana seven.
For Marsa, Butler, Bezzina and Van Colen all took a wicket.
Thus, the Marsa team secured their first Summer League title.
Next Saturday, Sharks and Panthers will play a friendly game while the Sunoco Cricket academy/nursery will run from 9am till 10.30am.
More information may be obtained by sending an email to maltacricket@yahoo.co.uk.