Pinatar Pirates were the first league team from the East Coast to sample Madrid’s new cricket ground and they came back home with a very satisfying victory.
Pinatar won the toss and put the hosts into bat. Good efforts by Jay (48), Sumit (26) and Raghan (32not out) gave Madrid a total of 179 for 9 at the half way point.
Pinatar responded well to the challenge and got their target with two wickets to spare. Pr. Singh top scored with 56 not out, and he was well supported by B Singh and Elliot Banks who hit 44 and 32 respectively.
Pirates scored 18 points from the game whilst Madrid managed 7 points.
Report by Pinatar CC
20th April was a special day as ECCL Div Two 2015 Champions Pinatar Pirates were going to be the first team to travel up to the new ground of Madrid Cricket Club. After a mammoth drive the Pirates arrived into a very cold and windy Madrid, very different conditions to that off San Pedro, Murcia.
Pinatar won the toss and put the home side into bat. Madrid CC steadily kept the scoreboard ticking and with good knocks from Jay (48) and Raghan (32 NO) they reached 179 runs, losing 9 wkts of their 40 overs. Pirate Vikram was the pick of the bowlers taking 3 for 22 of his 8 overs.
With no change in the weather and temperatures dropping, the Madrid team took the field wearing as much clothing as they could to defend the total and look for a win in their first league match at their new premises.
They got off to a great start as team Pinatar lost 2 wickets for just 15 runs! However, Pinatar regrouped and knocks from Gopi (44), Elliot (32) and sensible batting from Preetpal (52) helped Pinatar reach the target and win with 2 wickets in hand. Congratulations and well done to Madrid CC on their first ground in Madrid and thank you from all the Pirates for being such great hosts.
