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22 maltatoday, WEDNESDAY, 24 JUNE 2015 Sport CRICKET SNOOKER Swansea University cricket team visits Marsa Cricket Club Two contrasting matches at Marsa last weekend first saw the Marsa select team whitewash the Swansea University Touring XI and the following day the result saw a convincing win for the tourists JOHN GRIMA ON Friday 19 June during the T20 match, the University team found themselves in difficulty from the start as they were down 3 wickets for only 15 runs. A superb piece of fielding from Frank Spiteri saw wicket keeper Sam Aquilina whip off the bails for an early run out. D Scott (44) and J Peeke (18) batting in the middle order steadied the team and produced some runs. Tail- enders R Verrier (11) and J Storer (8) took the team score to 123 for 7. Marsa used nine bowlers and the wickets were shared between F Ahmed Akbar 2, and one each for F Spiteri, G Lobban, N Khosla and guest player from Australia Jamie Ancilleri. In reply the Marsa openers Sam Aquilina (33 off 17 balls) and B Arora (25 off 10 balls) were in full f low with the bat scoring four sixes and five fours between them! F Spiteri (14) H Majeed (26) and Mark Sacco (19) finished the game off in 13 overs! For Swan- sea Uni, C Lamb bowled superbly taking 3 wickets for only 14 runs. Marsa here, one up in the series. On Saturday 20 June the Swan- sea Uni team changed a few of their players for the 40 overs match and were determined not to lose the series. They won the toss and elected to bat first. O Hills and R Ravel opened. Ravel (5 runs) was caught at mid off by Feroz in the early overs, which brought J Peeke to the crease. Peeke scored his half cen- tury and shortly after, when on 55 and forming a partnership of 99 runs, decided to reverse sweep a ball passing wide on his leg side and in doing so hit a catch back to the bowler G Lobban! A strange dismissal indeed! O Hills went on to score a century, hit- ting sixteen fours and two sixes along the way to his tally of 138 runs. He was out stumped on the last ball of the innings. The Swansea University team totaled 229 runs for 7. For Marsa G Lobban took 3 wickets, P Bradley 2 and one each for A Balakrishnan and A Naudi. On paper the Marsa Select team was short of batsmen although the total was gettable if the in- nings was paced well. The visi- tors had other ideas and opened with the strong pace attack of P. Davis, W Treloar and A Shaw. They bowled accurately dis- missing the top four Marsa bats- men, T Wheeler (5), F Ahmed Akbar (0), P Flynn (0) and J Grima (16) cheaply. A Naudi threatened to attack the bowling, but after he fell for 25 runs and the score on 62 for 6, it was left to the final four batsmen to play the remain- ing 20 overs out. A Balakrishnan (27 runs) and P Bradley (30 runs) managed to play a few shots but in the 28th over Marsa's final wicket fell with the score on 150. Marsa lost by 79 runs. Full credit to the Swansea University bowlers and the bowling honours went espe- cially to J Platt who took 5 wick- ets for his team. Umpires: Alan Swift & Les White Scorer: Eric Balakrishna Man of the Match: O Hills for his 138 runs. Match summaries: Friday 19th June 2015 – Twenty20 match: Swansea Uni 123 for 7 (J Peeke 44, D Scott 18; F Ahmed Akbar 2-19) lost to Marsa Select 127 for 4 (S Aquilina 33, H Majeed 26; C Lamb 3-12) by 6 wickets Saturday 20th June 2015 – 40 overs Match: Swansea Uni 229 for 7 (O Hills 138, J Peeke 55; G Lob- ban 3-43) beat Marsa Select 150 (P Bradley 30, A Naudi 25; J Platt 5-43) by 79 runs This coming weekend at Marsa we have the start of the 25 overs Cricket Summer League. Sat- urday 27th June : Marauders vs Melita CC – 10:30am start; Sunday 29th June: Krishna CC vs Marsa CC – 10:30am start. Swansea University Touring Cricket Team China B win Snooker World Cup IT'S the second consecutive time that China have won the event as they beat Northern Ireland in the final in Thailand in 2011. On that occasion it was Ding Junhui and Liang Wenbo who took the trophy. This time the host nation was allowed to en- ter two teams into the 24-team tournament, and it was their 'B' pairing of 17-year-old Zhou and 15-year-old Yan who stole the show with a series of bril- liant displays. After coming through the group phase then knocking out Australia and Wales, they beat experienced Scottish duo John Higgins and Stephen Maguire in the final to claim the $200,000 top prize and underline China's status as a growing force in the global game. Zhou and Yan have both won the World Amateur title and both look to have the potential to follow in Ding's footsteps and become regular winners on the professional circuit. Zhou scored some impressive results during his rookie year on the tour last season, while Yan is now debuting on the circuit. China stormed into a 3-0 lead in the final as Yan beat Hig- gins in the opening frame with a break of 100, Zhou saw off Maguire with runs of 44 and 51, then the home favourites added a doubles frame. Maguire took frame four against Yan, but Zhou's 33 clearance in frame five against Higgins gave China the title. Earlier in the semi-finals, Scotland beat India 4-3, with Maguire taking a dramatic fi- nal frame on the last pink af- ter Aditya Mehta had missed a match-winning chance. China B edged out Welsh duo Mark Williams and Michael White 4-3. Yan Bingtao: Part of China B's winning team