Fine Marsa display lands them Dhandapani Trophy

On Saturday, Marsa produced a fine display of cricket against Overseas CC to win the Dhandapani Trophy.

Overseas lost the toss and were asked to bat. They batted well against some fine bowling from Marsa. Glen Tavilla hit 28 runs before being stumped and Matthew Birkwood showed great skill before retiring on 34. He returned late in the innings but was caught off the first ball he faced.

Colin Willis batted patiently for 12 runs and when continuing he remained 22 not out. Sudip also retired for a fine knock of 25 and Sean Duffy was not out on 19. Overseas collected 177 runs for the loss of seven wickets. Michael Caruana was the pick of the Marsa bowlers taking three wickets.

The innings started off well for Marsa with opening batsmen Sagar Krishna and Ernest Glynn both retiring on 30 balls, making 16 and 14 respectively. Neither made any impact when they returned to the crease though.

Jim Towers made 19 and Alan Kyle 17. Sam Dhandapani retired on 33 runs having to return to the crease being the last batsman needing one run to win. He dealt with the pressure and hit the ball powerfully to score the winning run.

The better bowler for Overseas was Grant Williams with four wickets.

Spiteri's century

On Sunday, Marsa took on English team Brasted and Sundrige CC.

Frank Spiteri batted the whole 40 overs making his fourth century against a touring side. His 119 included 16 fours and three sixes.

Spiteri's opening partner Chris Naudi made 45 before being bowled.

Sam Dhandapani made 21 and the in-form John Grima 52. Mark Sacco chipped in with 12 runs not out in a massive total of 273.

The visitors were keen on taking up the run chase and in so doing wickets fell rapidly.

Only two batsmen, S. Gisby, 24, and M. Toms, 25, were able to make it into double figures. They were bowled out for a meek 71 losing the game by 202 runs.

This week Marsa take on Ashford today and tomorrow.

The HSBC Winter League starts on Saturday at 12.20 p.m. with the match between Overseas and Krishna.

Anyone interested in playing in this competition may obtain more details on participation by sending an email to maltacricket@yahoo.co.uk.