Leyland outclass Marsa

Over the weekend, Marsa CC took on touring side Leyland Motors CC from England.

On Saturday, Marsa won the toss and elected to field. Marsa bowled out the visitors in the 49th over.

The visitors made a big total of 272 runs. J. Rownding top scored with 56 runs. J.Aspiroll scored 45 and L. Shakelton made 35 runs.

Marsa had started off reasonably, having the visitors four wickets down in 29th over. But the middle and lower order batsmen kept at their jobs and kept the scoreboard ticking. For Marsa, Sarfraz Ali took four wickets and Alan Kyle took three being the home side's better wicket takers.

Good catching from Alan Swift and Michael Caruana kept the locals in the game. Marsa's reply was not of standard with players making it to double figures and not going on to record high scores.

Sam Dhandapani top scored with 50 runs, while Javed Shah, Sarfraz Ali and Desmond Don Paul all made it into the 20s.

Marsa only managed to make 182 runs losing by 90 runs. J. Rowding took three wickets for the visitors.

On Sunday, Marsa were still confident that they could chase down the runs and elected to field first again when they won the toss.

Marsa were stunned at the batting display which saw the visitors clock a high score of 339 runs from their 50 overs.

Few teams have made over 300 runs over the years in this format of the game which include the PCA cricket. G. Porter made a great century (118 runs) , V. Jones (66 runs), A. Makinson (61 runs) and a helpful handful of extras from the Marsa team (46 runs).

Michael Caruana and Mike Smith were the main bowlers who took three wickets apiece.

Chasing such a score is always difficult and the Marsa batsmen tried hard but to no avail.

Only Rory O'Brien made 40 runs and Caruana 28 runs in a meagre score of 141 runs.

Marsa lost by a mammoth 198 runs. V. Jones was the visitors' most successful bowler taking four wickets in two overs for five runs.

Today, Marsa play the third game in the series at 10 a.m.

On Saturday, Marsa take on Krishna at 11 a.m. and Melita meet The Overseas at 2.30 p.m. in the Skanska summer trophy.