The Winter League match on Saturday, between Marsa and Melita Betfair, had a delayed start due to the overnight rain that made the ground soggy and hard for both teams, particularly in the first innings, to show their best play.

By the second innings, however, the surface started to dry up and the ball was moving better .

Marsa went on to win the match and claim their first Winter League title with one game to spare.

Marsa batted first with Javed Shah and Ronnie Sacco putting up a 51-run partnership before Sacco was caught by Tony Slater for 22. Shah went on to retire, scoring 34.

Derek Ali went in and looked like tearing the bowling attack apart after hitting two 6s in an over only to be bowled in the following over. He ended up with 16 runs.

Frank Spiteri had a let-off when he had five runs on the board and was saved by the umpire calling a no-ball when he was caught.

Spiteri went on to make 14 runs before being stumped by John Grima.

Tony Azzopardi added eight runs and the final over of the innings was an incredible one from Chris Naudi who took two wickets and made it a maiden.

The not out batspersons were Sarfraz Ali and Nadia Gosney.

Andy Naudi was the main wicket-taker with three.

Melita came into this match in fine form and their innings had a top start with Andy Naudi scoring 36 runs and John Grima 19.

But two ducks followed, one batsman made four runs, another managed six before a third duck.

The game just kept swinging either way at this juncture.

Kevin Krishna (17 not out) and Jim Heasman (four not out) were facing the last over, needing 12 runs for their team to win.

Ali held his nerve while bowling and the batsmen could only add six runs between them for Marsa to secure the title thanks to the seven points they had accumulated to their tally.

Tony Azzopardi was the main wicket-taker for Marsa with three wickets. Also, Gordon Hewitt bowled remarkably well and only had 14 runs taken off his five overs besides taking one wicket.

Next Saturday, Marsa play Krishna.