INDIVIDUAL BATTING RECORD SMASHED AT THE STADIUM.
The individual batting record, held by former Gibraltar coach David Young who scored 205 in 2006, was smashed at the Victoria Stadium on Saturday, when Combined Colleges player, Nushan Alwis hit a mammoth 223 not out to steer his side to a massive 189 run victory against Mediterranean CC. In the other Wiggins/Benrimoj match played, GCC accounted for Barbarians CC.
The Nushan Alwis show.
Combined Colleges won the toss, opted to bat first and lost two wickets with only 57 runs on the board. This brought Nushan Alwis to the crease and he was dropped three times in one over when on 14, something which the Mediterranean bowlers were soon to regret! With the total just past the three figure mark, Colleges lost a third wicket, but then Samir Bagewadi joined Alwis in a fourth wicket stand of 106, in the process of which Alwis was dropped two further times. The real assault, however, came when the fielding side’s second and third string bowlers came on as Alwis struck eighteen sixes and twenty fours on his way to an undefeated 223 in a final total of 329/5.
Ian Farrell and Ross Harkins put on 58 runs for the first wicket, but once the latter holed out to deep mid on, the game was as good as over. Farrell went on to score 40 but the rest of the batting had little to contribute as the whole side was dismissed for 140 in 22.3 overs. For the Costa boys, Mark Ward returned figures of 5/20 and Samir Bagewadi 3/40. They went home with 22 points to Mediterranean CC’s two bowling points.
Close contest at the Europa Oval.
The match at the Europa Oval turned out to be a much closer contest. GCC batted first and were given a flying start by Adrian Hewitt and Scott Chipolina who smashed 43 runs in the opening three overs! Hewitt was run out in the fourth overs, after which Chris Phillips joined Chipolina in a second wicket partnership on 106. When Phillips finally departed for 62, a couple of wickets fell cheaply but Chipolina went on to make 79 and an undefeated 29 from Sebastian Suarez enabled GCC to reach a total of 229/9 in their allotted thirty overs. For Barbarians CC, Iain Latin and Charlie Harrison took two wickets apiece.
Barbarians CC were also given a good start as Harrison and Julian Freyone put on 70 runs in their opening twelve overs before Chris Phillips accounted for the former who was then five runs short of his half century. John Hazell then joined Freyone and a further 55 runs accrued before he fell victim to Suarez for 27. GCC then captured the valuable wicket of Latin (a maiden senior wicket for young Jeremy Perez) and when Freyone finally perished for 45, Barbarians CC still required 69 more runs for victory with six overs remaining. That task proved too much for the tail and the side fell 33 runs short, their final total standing on 197/7. Perez and Hewitt took two wickets apiece for GCC, who took seventeen points from the game to Barbarians CC’s six..
P W T L BP Pts GCC 2 2 0 0 17 37 Barbarians 2 1 0 1 15 25 Combined Colleges 3 1 0 2 15 25 Mediterranean 2 1 0 1 11 21 Night Owls 1 0 0 1 7 7 Colts 0 0 0 0 0 0