MALAGA JUNIORS IN GIBRALTAR
Yet another first was achieved when the Junior Under 13 Team from Malaga, Spain travelled to Gibraltar in mid August to take on the Gibraltar Under 13 National Team to assist in their preparations for the ECC 2nd Division U13 Tournament later in August.
Travelling with some enthusiastic supporters, Malaga won the toss and asked Gibraltar to bat first, the home team reaching a total of 148 off their 25 overs, thanks to good batting from Scott Chipolina, assisted by Karan Sadwani and Rahul Daswani. The Malaga Boys bowled well with good efforts from Ricardo Engleman, Tommy Foster, Kent Margison, Dominic Maybry and Aaron Walton. Malaga´s batsmen showed a promising start. Dominic Maybry, assisted by Cara Walton, Tommy Foster, Ben Girling and Aaron Walton kept the game alive but Jordan Dudley, Rahul Daswani and Scott Chipolina were able to restrict the Malaga Batting, bowling them out for 126 runs (22 runs short of the target).
The following day Malaga again won the toss and this time elected to bat. The opening pair of Ben Taylor and Cara Walton posting an opening stand of 25 with Walton having to retire. Dominic Maybry joined Taylor and with the score on 43 Taylor fell bowler by Joss Hatcher, with Hatcher going on to finish with 4 for 25. Ricardo Engleman came in and scored an impressive 26 not out, and ably supported by Ben Girling and Simon Kidd allowed Malaga to reach 110 after their 25 overs. Gibraltar took control of the match from the start with an opening stand of 27 between Rohit Ratanpal 20 and Scott Chipolina. Kent Margison got rid of Chipolina, bowled, finishing with 2 for 16. A sixth wicket partnership between Brook Baldwin and Jordan Dudley saw Gibraltar over haul the Malaga score after 20 overs. Margison and Frankie Langan were the pick of the Bowlers with Tommy Foster, Ricardo Engleman and Ben Girling showing a lot of promise from this very young Malaga Squad, the average age being 11 years old.
Both games were keenly contested. The Gibraltar Juniors were the better team in both matches and have some fine cricketers who should give a good account of themselves in the ECC U-13 Tournament to be held in Gibraltar 23-28 August.