There was plenty of cricket over the past week. The two remaining games against Stockport Grammar School were played, the Summer league continued with Krishna C.C entertaining Overseas C.C. and a friendly game between a Travellers C.C from England (which needed a couple of players) against the Marsa C.C was also played.
The match between Malta and the Rest was postponed.
The third game between Marsa and SGS was a one sided affair in which SGS took all the honours. The Marsa team batted first and were bowled out in the 40th over and made a miserable 100 runs only.
Mark G Sacco and Frank Spiteri (17 runs each) and Sarfraz Ali (16runs) and Extras (19 runs) were the main scorers.
Tim Wheeler chipped in with 11 runs. For SGS, D. Wright devastated the Marsa batting by taking six wickets. A. Jones took two and a wicket each to M. Cox and M. Murphy.
SGS were comfortable winners making the required runs in the 18th over led by O. Hall who made an outstanding 78 runs which included 12 fours. The series now was at two to one in favour of the locals.
In the final game, SGS batted first and posted a reasonable score of 183 runs from their 40 overs. D. Wright showed that he can bat as well and top scored with 75 runs which included six fours.
M. Schofield jnr scored 22 runs, while C.Marshall (18 runs), M. Schofield (15 runs), M. Murphy (19 runs) all contributed.
For the home team, Matt Towns, Kevin Krishna and Martin Llewlyn took a wicket each while Andy Naudi took two.
The run chase was on for the Marsa team. They started off well with Nowell Khosla scoring 53 runs which included three fours and two sixes. Sumair Khan scored 29 runs and once he was out, a flurry of wickets did not help the Marsa team’s cause.
Andy Naudi (57 runs) who was at the crease with the last batsmen Martin Llewlyn, was facing the last ball of the innings needing four runs to win. Unfortunately for the home team, only one run was made and SGS won the game to square the series. A. Jones was the main wicket taker with three. C. Marshall two, M. Proctor, D. Wright and H. Barnes a wicket a piece.
Summer League
The Summer League game between Krishna C.C and Overseas C.C was an interesting run chase - one would not have imagined such a close finish and the game could have gone either way.
Overseas batted first and were bowled out for a mere 62 runs, with Mike Caruana scoring 28 runs, extras 13 and Roger Bradley nine runs.
For Krishna Bikram Arora took three wickets, Dhruv Duggal two, Sumair Khan two and Ewan Perens one.
With the batting line up Krishna thought it was going to be easy. John Rusher made eight runs and was third top scorer behind Sumair Khan (20 runs) and extras (15). The Overseas saw a very slim light as wickets began to fall.
The reality of a first win came when they realised they needed one wicket to win. Two chances presented themselves, a catch was dropped and a run out missed and Krishna scrapped over the line to win the game.
Roger Bradley was the main wicket taker with three while Jim Hunter took two. Krishna earned ten points from the win while Overseas earned one.
Friendly game
In the friendly game the Travellers won the 25-over match.
Today, the Summer league continues with Krishna C.C taking on the Marsa C.C.