Malta Select played The Rest in a 20-over game on Saturday as a warm up for the European Championship coming up.

The selection batted first with Dave Borg and Nowell Khosla at the crease.

Khosla played with caution when facing the speedy Wassem Abbas as Borg had to deal with Dhruv Duggal.

Borg beat the early jitters and smashed two sixes and a four.

However, Duggal soon trapped Borg lbw to stop his tally at a creditable 20 from ten balls.

Khosla was to follow, making 13 runs from 17 balls, while Justin Brooke added 13 and Frank Spiteri 17.

Andy Naudi chipped in with five as all these batsmen fell to Bikram Arora, The Rest’s most successful bowler.

Sunny Krishna managed 21 runs from 20 balls and Ronnie Sacco 15 from eight as the selection finished with 144 runs, including the extras.

Simon Lavender opened the innings for The Rest but he did not trouble the scorers as he was caught off the second ball.

Harron Majeed, Lavender’s opening partner, held his position but he was made to watch Arora (five runs), Duggal (two), Imran Yousaf (two) and Malcolm Crabbe (six) all disappear to the pavilion before he was eventually caught.

Majeed made 26 runs from 24 deliveries which included two fours.

Chris Riorden and Pragnesh produced a 25-run partnership before Pragnesh was caught by Frank Spiteri (his second catch of the day).

Pragnesh left with 15 runs as Riorden was involved in another 27-run partnership, this time with Sam Aquilina.

Aquilina managed six points and a few runs later Riorden was out after a gallant 33 from 31 balls.

The Rest were bowled out in the 18th over, totalling 106 runs.

For the national team, Andy Naudi and Ronnie Sacco were the most effective bowlers with three wickets apiece.