The MCA Winter League got underway on Saturday with holders Melita starting their title defence with a loss to Krishna.

This year’s format is 30 overs. After facing 40 balls, batsmen have to retire and only able to return if all other wickets have been taken.

Krishna batted first and within three overs they had already lost the wickets of Nowell Khosla and Sid Anand.

But then, Andy Mitchell scored an impressive 19 from 18 balls as Bikram Arora went all guns blazing, adding 16 runs before being caught.

John Grima kept his consistency in form and was the team’s top scorer with 30 runs which included four fours. Andy Lenard chipped in with 16 while Mike Caruana collected 20 runs towards the end of the innings.

The downside to the innings was that Krishna were all out in the 28th over. They totalled 130 runs.

Chris Riordan was the main wicket-taker with three.

Justin Brooke felled two wickets and also had three catches in the field, one of which he had to run and dive to claim Lenard’s scalp.

The Melita reply started well enough with the first ball going wide for four runs. However, by the end of that first over they had forfeited two wickets.

Brooke started to consolidate the Melita innings before he was dismissed after making 14 runs. Sumair Khan had eight runs when he was caught by Khosla.

Sam Aquilina had Melita’s best score of 22 while Andy Naudi (21) and Riordan (15) were the other main scorers as Melita were also bowled out in the 28th over, only managing a mere 102 runs.

Arora shone for Krishna taking four wickets while Khosla and Mike Caruana both took two each.

Eric Krishna batted well for Melita, lasting 18 balls, while Anand also took three catches in the field.