Captian’s Sharks hold on

The Panthers batted first with Nowell Khosla and Sarfraz Ali opening the batting. Both being dismissed by Andy Lenard for nine and eleven runs respectively. Malcolm Crabbe then took the wicket of Joy Ghoseroy who had made seventeen runs. The Panthers were in trouble. Bikram Arora (twenty one runs) and Ranjit Gokarn )fifteen runs) had other ideas and both hit three boundaries each.

Once they were gone only Haroon Majeed made any impact on the score, top scoring with twenty four runs including four fours. The Panthers totalled 124 runs. For the Sharks, Tony Azzopardi took three wickets with all his wickets being caught by Anthony Slater. John Grima behind the stumps managed to take two stumpings.
With 124 runs to chase the Sharks thought it was going to be an easy day at the office. The opening batsmen John Grima (thirty one runs) and Sam Aquilina (twenty one runs including a six) put on a fifty three run partnership before Aquilina was run out by Bikram Arora. By the time Grima was out five overs later four batsmen had already been in and out , scoring twelve runs between them. This now had the Sharks in trouble.

Tony Azzopardi and Ewan Perens took the score to 116.Perens being bowled by Arora. Wickets again fell in a hurry and as the last batsmen walked in (Gordon Hewitt) the game was a draw. Fortunately for the Sharks Azzopardi was at the crease and managed to steer the winning run, Azzopardi making twenty one runs not out. Bikram Arora would be one of the rare players of being man of the match in a losing side. He took five wickets and two catches. Joy Ghoseroy behind the stumps took two stumpings and a catch.

Next Saturday sees the return match between the two teams.

On Saturday the Sunoco Cricket Academy/nursery will be from 9:00 till 10:30am.