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GRAMMARIANS RETAIN MURTO CUP WHILST GCC TAKE ONE STEP NEARER LEAGUE TITLE.

The week-end’s cricket action saw Grammarians CC retain the Murto Cup and GCC take one step nearer the Caleta Hotel League title.     The Murto Cup Final, staged at the Victoria Stadium on Saturday, resulted in an interesting contest with fortunes swinging first one way then the other.    The Sunday match at Europa, on the other hand, turned out to be a very one-sided affair with proceedings over before 3.00pm.

Calpe fail to capitalise on excellent start.

Grammarians won the toss, put Calpe in to bat, and Steven Gonzalez and Ross Harkins gave their side an excellent start with a stand of 76 in the opening twelve overs.   The entry of Neil Emerson into the attack nearly paid instant dividends as Harkins was dropped behind and Emerson himself failed to hold on to a return catch from Gonzalez.     This last did not prove to be expensive as Emerson trapped Gonzalez leg before in his very next over when the batsman was two short of his half century and wicket keeper Richard Buzaglo made amends for his earlier miss when he caught Harkins (40) off the bowling of Sebastian Suarez seven overs later.   Chris Phillips and Karan Aswani then set about consolidating on this good start and they added a further 38 runs for the third wicket before Aswani took a wild swing at Emerson and gave Ryan Gonzalez a relatively simple catch at wide mid-on.   Iain Latin then joined Phillips and they took the score along to 175 before Dheeraj Punjabi decided to take a hand in proceedings with devastating effect.   He first claimed the wicket of Phillips (33) who had given him a difficult return catch when on 1 and had been dropped behind when on 18, and followed this with four more wickets as the Calpe total slumped from 175/3 to 191 all out.   Punjabi ended with figures of 5/30 and Emerson 2/25.

Amazing recovery by Grammarians from a poor start.

Grammarians made a poor start to their innings, losing the wickets of Mark Bacarese and Mohammed Usman with only 19 runs on the board.  George Shacaluga then helped Kabir Mirpuri, who had opened the innings, to add 41 runs for the third wicket before Steven Gonzalez bowled him and Vikram Khatwani did not stay long, caught by David Young (keeping wicket for the first time in his life!) off the bowling of  Phillips.   At 72/4 and almost half the overs gone, Grammarians were staring defeat in the face.   Punjabi and Mirpuri put on a further 49 runs for the fifth wicket but when the former was bowled by Akhil Viz for 27, Grammarians still required 71 runs with just nine overs remaining, an asking rate of nearly eight an over.   At this point, Buzaglo strode to the crease and hit 46 runs off 38 balls to bring victory home with five balls to spare.    Mirpuri fell near the end for 71 and Buzaglo remained undefeated on 46.   It had been an amazing game of cricket with a fairy tale ending.

All too easy for GCC.

League leaders GCC took on PGCC at Europa on Sunday without their skipper Christian Rocca, but in the end his services would not have been required as PGCC put up little resistance.   Winning the toss, GCC inserted their opponents and there was no indication of what was to follow as Manish Grover and Shah Hetal put on 40 runs for the first wicket, the bulk of these runs coming from the bat of the former.   Mark Garratt struck the first blow for GCC, Rudi Phillips taking a fine catch in the gully to account for Shah, and the flood gates opened after that.   Grover went on to score 61 but the rest of the batting had little answer to the bowling of Bob Brooks, and Gary De’Ath.     When Grover departed the total stood at 80/3, but the last seven wickets tumbled for the addition of just eighteen runs!   Brooks took 2/24 and De’Ath 4/2 in 2.5 overs.

GCC lost the wicket of Adrian Hewitt, bowled by Arun Kokku, with the total on 28, after which Kieron Ferrary (36) and Andrew Chipolina (35) saw their side home requiring only twelve of the allotted forty overs!      GCC took nineteen points from the match; PGCC went home empty-handed.

Next Week.

There are two more Caleta Hotel League matches scheduled for Saturday.    At the Victoria Stadium, Grammarians take on UKCCC, whilst at Europa GCC continue their search for their first Senior League title since 1998.