The much anticipated Girona Premier League got under way today with the opening ceremony followed by the mouthwatering clash of Empuriabrava taking on United CC.
The ceremony itself was done by the Director of Sports of Empuriabrava and then the first match of the GPL closely followed soon afterwards.
Empuriabrava batted first and scored 145 for 8 from their overs allocation. Spanish international Awais Ahmed opened the batting and scored 26 from 24 balls, and then further innings of 31 by Tahir Sajid, and 24 not out by Ghulam Sabar gave the total some crucial extra runs at the end. Naresh Kumar was unlucky to finish on the losing side, after producing an excellent spell of bowling that yielded three wickets for just eleven runs.
United could not quite reach the competitive total and were all out for 117 in the penultimate over. Basharat Ali continued his fine form with the bat, notching 22 runs from the same amount of balls, but that proved to be the top score for United, as the Empuriabrava bowlers won the battle with the United batsman.
Nasir Shahzad took three wickets, whilst three out of the other four Empuriabrava bowlers took a brace each to give the bowling figures a nice balance and their team a well-deserved 28 run victory.
The other six teams participating in the 2019 GPL are Vic, Salt, Olot Tigers, Farners, Barna Royals and Ripoll Warriors. All matches will be played at either the Vic or Empuriabrava grounds.
Empuriabrava 145 for 8 (T Sajid 31, N Kumar 3-11) beat United CC 117 all out (B Mirza 22, N Shahzad 3-37) by 28 runs.
http://www.criccatala.com/CricketCatala/viewScorecard.do?matchId=278&clubId=9868
