Suraj bowlers up to the task

Suraj Cricket Club, from near Wembley, England, played two games against Marsa over the weekend.

On Saturday the home team won the toss and elected to bat. Suraj had early success having Callus caught in the fourth over of the innings. The next wicket fell in the 20th over with the score at 67, indeed a very slow start for the locals.

With wickets in hand it was assumed that Marsa will still be able to put up a good total for the innings. But, the next ten overs only yielded 29 runs with a loss of three more wickets.

Suraj bowled extremely well and eventually restricted Marsa to a moderate score of 145 runs for eight wickets.

Top scorer for Marsa was J. Grima, scoring his first 50 for the touring season.

Suraj also had a poor start to their innings, losing two wickets in the very first over. Had catches been taken, the outcome would have been different, but that was not the case. The Suraj batsmen then stuck to the task with relative ease, D. Patel scoring 70 runs not out to see the visitors win the game by five wickets.

Suraj again lost the toss on Sunday but were asked to bat. The hosts strengthened their side this time, making a total of nine changes from the previous day.

As on Saturday, the visitors lost a wicket in the first over.

But, again, their batsmen's skills made it very hard for the home side. Four of them made over 20 runs plus they had 50 extras in a total of 176 all out in the last over. Nine bowlers were used with F. Spiteri taking three wickets for 41 and S. Dhandapani and Sagar Krishna taking two wickets each.

The Marsa innings started off with a bang, A. Spiteri hitting eight 4s in an opening partnership of 62 before being run out in the 12th over for 46. Two quick wickets fell which brought in F. Spiteri to the crease sharing in another 62-run partnership with A. Kyle.

After a patient 37, Kyle was bowled out. F. Spiteri was finally caught for 57 but victory was achieved for Marsa to tie the series at 1-1.

This week sees two new teams at Marsa - Lowestoft Town CC and Morton CC. Lowestoft play Marsa today and on Thursday. Lowestoft will also face Morton CC tomorrow.

Morton will be playing Marsa on Saturday and Sunday.