Marsa take title despite last-day upset to Krishna

On Saturday, Marsa CC met Krishna CC in their last meeting of the Skanska Summer League which was to decide the winner of the tournament.

Marsa won the toss and elected to field first. Glen Tavilla and Tariq opened the batting for Krishna. Tavilla started off the innings in style, straight driving Caruana's first ball for four runs and hit Desmond Don Paul for another two fours in the following over.

Tariq, who was facing the last ball of the second over, lofted a ball towards mid-on which should have been caught by Caruana but was let off.

The next ball encountered by Tariq was off Caruana's bowling and he hit the ball straight back to the bowler. This time no mistake was made in taking the catch.

Mark Sacco was the next batsman in and made 15 runs before being stumped. Krishna's next batsman, Andrew Naudi, took the game away from Marsa, building a magnificent 53 runs from 24 balls including seven fours and one six.

Tavilla ended making 36 runs, including six fours. Sam Dhandapani made 20 runs before being caught by Farrugia at deep mid-wicket.

Pierre Naudi made 17 runs before being run out. Krishna totalled 171 runs.

For Marsa, Nowell Khosla was the main wicket taker with two wickets.

Jonathan Tully opened the batting for Marsa and smashed 32 runs, including a massive six off Andrew Naudi. Khosla also made 24 runs to add to his two wickets. Mike Caruana was then run out on the first ball he faced.

Ronnie Sacco hit 21 runs of 18 balls. Don Paul had 29 runs off 24 balls. Sarfraz Ali was also run out on 11 runs and John Grima was caught for 26 runs.

In the last over, John Farrugia was left to make 12 runs of three balls to win the game but clever bowling by Pierre Naudi left the Marsa team stranded on 160 runs.

Krishna won the game. Despite their last-day upset, Marsa still lifted the Skanska Summer Trophy. For the second year running, Krishna finished second.

This week, Overseas and Melita play to decide third and fourth placing.