The 2013 Summer League got off to a start on Saturday.
The weekend was a busy one for Cricket Malta as the last session of the Academy was also held while a training spin for national team players was led by coach Dave Carlisle in the build-up for the next international tournament.
The Summer League, to be contested by Marsa, Melita, Krishna and Overseas, will be played over a 25-over format.
Winning teams will earn 12 points for a win and six for a draw.
The bonus points system will again be applied with batting points starting at 150 runs and for every 25 runs after 200 runs, meaning three bonus points are possible.
In the bowling department, a team will earn a point if they claim five wickets and two for bowling a team out.
Something new in the format is that if a junior player takes a wicket it will add a point to the team. Also, if a junior makes a minimum of eight runs then that will also count as a bonus point for his team.
Marsa played Krishna in Saturday’s opener. Krishna batted first and had a good start from their openers – Nowell Khosla (26 runs) and Andy Mitchell (39, retired).
Bikram Arora was also batting well until he obstructed the fielders and made 35 runs while Ewan Prezebs added a valuable 21 towards the end of the innings.
Interesting to note, Krishna had seven batsmen who scored a total of 18 runs. With extras, they collected 181 runs from the allotted overs.
Ronnie Sacco was the main wicket-taker with two while George Agius, Sarfraz Ali, Daniel Galea and Joe Gatner all took a wicket each.
The Marsa run chase was rather shaky at first with Tony Azzopardi only managing 11 runs and Tony Slater two.
But things improved after that.
In fact, Zubair Raja scored 27 runs from 14 balls and Sacco had everyone baffled with his 62 runs from 37 balls. Harron Majeed added 48 from 19 balls and Sam Aquilina hit 24 from 17.
In the end, Marsa won the match with three overs to spare. They play Melita in Saturday’s second match of the championship.
Also on Saturday morning, training will get underway ahead of the Women’s League.