GCCbwin maintain their unbeaten record.
GCCbwin entertained Combined Colleges at the Victoria Stadium, won the toss and chose to occupy the crease first. They suffered an early shock as Kieron Ferrary, scorer of so many runs in recent weeks, went first ball, caught in the gully. Ian Farrell and Christian Rocca then set about repairing this early damage with good effect, putting together a stand of 125 runs before the former was bowled by Nushan Alwis when one short of his half century. Andrew Chipolina then joined Rocca and runs continued to flow, 38 runs being added for the third wicket before Chipolina became Nushan Alwis’s second victim, bowled for 21. The same bowler accounted for Rocca [86] and ten runs later and when De’Ath holed out to Chris Harris, the total had slumped to 187/6. However, at this point, Steven Gonzalez, riding his luck a bit as he was dropped three times, took over control, hitting 49 not out off forty balls to enable his side to reach a respectable 258/6. Nushan Alwis was the pick of Combined Colleges’s bowlers, returning figures of 3/28, and skipper Chris Harris took 2/48.
GCCbwin struck an early blow as Gonzalez bowled the dangerous Cliff Knezovich with the total on 18, and a brilliant catch by veteran Rudi Phillips at backward point off the bowling of Charlie Harrison accounted for the equally dangerous Nushan Alwis. Opener Mark Ward was finding the boundary with unerring regularity and together with Ashan Alwis added 45 runs for the third wicket, but the entry of Gary De’Ath into the attack put an effective brake on the scoring rate and also accounted for Ashan Alwis, bowled for 29. At the half-way twenty overs stage, the Combined Colleges total stood on 96/3, which meant that they were well behind the required run rate and would have to score at over eight runs an over in the latter stages. When they lost a further wicket soon after the drinks break and Ward finally departed for 66, another victim for De’Ath, it seemed all over bar the shouting, but Harris continued to defy all comers and in number ten, Jason Wild, he found a worthy partner, the latter striking 26 runs off just sixteen balls to give the GCCbwin players some anxious moments. However, skipper Farrell now took it upon himself to steer his side to victory which he did, taking the last two wicket to leave Harris stranded on 48 not out in a total of 223. Farrell ended with figures of 4/40 and De’Ath 3/22, as their side took twenty points from the game to their opponents’ six.
P W T L BP Pts GCC 4 4 0 0 45 85 Calpe 4 3 0 1 35 65 Combined Colleges 4 1 0 3 26 36 Mediterranean 4 0 0 4 23 23