On Saturday, the Chairman’s Panthers took on the Captain’s Sharks in a 40-over game.

The Panthers batted first with Nowell Khosla and Sarfraz Ali opening the batting. Both were dismissed by Andy Lenard for nine and 11 runs respectively.

Malcolm Crabbe then took the wicket of Joy Ghoseroy who had made 17 runs. The Panthers were in trouble.

Bikram Arora (21) and Ranjit Gokarn (15) had other ideas and both hit three boundaries each.

Once they were gone, only Haroon Majeed made any impact on the score, top scoring with 24 runs including four fours. The Panthers totalled 124 runs.

For the Sharks, Tony Azzopardi took three wickets with all his wickets being caught by Anthony Slater. John Grima behind the stumps managed to take two stumpings.

With 124 runs to chase the Sharks thought it was going to be an easy day at the office.

The opening batsmen, John Grima (31) and Sam Aquilina (21 including a six) put on a 53-run partnership before Aquilina was run out by Bikram Arora.

By the time Grima was out five overs later, four batsmen had already been in and out, scoring 12 runs between them. This now had the Sharks in trouble.

Tony Azzopardi and Ewan Perens took the score to 116. Perens was bowled by Arora.

Wickets again fell in a hurry and as the last batsmen (Gordon Hewitt) walked in, the game was a draw. Fortunately for the Sharks, Azzopardi was at the crease and managed to steer the winning run, Azzopardi making 21 not out.

Bikram Arora would be one of the rare players of being man of the match in a losing side. He took five wickets and two catches. Joy Ghoseroy behind the stumps took two stumpings and a catch.

Tomorrow sees the return match between the two teams.

Also tomorrow, the Sunoco Cricket Academy/nursery will be from 9am till 10.30am.