American University of Malta

Apart from the National team of Malta, the island country also has several domestic teams in the country that take part in various domestic cricket leagues, mostly in the shorter formats of the game like T10 and T20. One of such very famous limited-overs domestic cricket leagues in Malta is the European Cricket Series. The European Cricket Series is a T10 tournament comprising the domestic teams of Malta. The most recent season of the ECS comprised 12 teams namely Knight Kings, Super Kings, Southern Crusaders, Power Hitters, Swieqi United, Bugibba Blasters, Marsa, Msida Warriors, Overseas, American University of Malta, Paola Boys, and Mater Dei. All the games of the tournament were played at the Marsa Cricket Ground.

The American University of Malta is a team mainly formed by the students of the University of the same name. The University located in Cospicua in Malta is a liberal arts college that follows the American style of education. Besides education, the University also has a cricket team and an eSports team. Their cricket team, the American University of Malta Cricket Club is authorized by the Malta Cricket Association and has not only participated but also performed well in many domestic matches since its creation. The team was formed on July 21, 2021. As of now, the team has played in 3 tournaments, one of which is the Malta T20 Premier League and the other one is the European Cricket Series.

The team has played 12 matches in the Malta T20 Premier League from its creation till date, of which 2 are upcoming, won 8 of them, lost one match, and one yielded no result. The team records a win percentage of an amazing 88.9 %. The 2023 squad for the American University of Malta features talented players like Abhishek Kuntala, Amandeep Ralhan, Basil George, Chandrakant Desai, Cindu Jen, Darshit Patankar, Gaurav Joshi, Jaspal Singh, Jitesh Patel, Mitulkumar Patel, Mohit Panchal, RockDanishsh, Tarak Shah, Varun Prasath, and last but not the least Zoheb Malek.

American University of Malta team owner

The American University of Malta Cricket Club is managed and owned by the American University of Malta. AUM is a private and coeducational institution liberal arts college situated in Cospicua in Malta officially established on 16 th September 2016. The team has enjoyed proper support and encouragement from the management to perform well in their domestic matches.

American University of Malta brand value

The team has been successful in many matches across various tournaments. The team is very young and possesses huge potential to be one of the best domestic teams in the country. The team's brand value could not be traced on the web but it is only predicted to witness a sharp and steady rise in the next few years relying on the terrific performances of the team members.

Performance of the American University of Malta over the Years

Year	Performance in the ECS Malta
2020	6th
2021	Qualifiers
2022	4th
2023	Yet to be determined

ECS Malta 2020 season

The first tournament the American University of Malta ever played as a team was the 2020 season of the European Cricket Series, Malta. The first first-ever in the history of the American University of Malta was held on November 25, 2020. In this match t, the AUM was about to face the Atlas UTC Knight, which was the third match of the season. But unfortunately, this match was abandoned due to rain without a ball bowled. This was not a good start to the journey of the newly formed team. Their second match as a team was the fifth match of the season on November 25, 2020, against the Atlas UTC Knight once again. This time the match was played but did not yield desired results. The AUM lost the match in 9.3 overs as the Atlas UTC Knights chased down the target of 68 runs. The batters as well as the bowlers failed to do their job and could not put up exceptional performance. Thus their debut match did not go as planned. Their next match was against the Southern Crusaders CC on November 26, 2020. In this match as well the American University of Malta ended up on the losing side, Batting first the UM gave the Southern Crusaders a target of 112 runs in 60 balls. This was quite a respectable target in 10 overs cricket but the opponents were slightly better and thus defeated them in 9.3 overs with 7 wickets remaining.

Their fourth match was on the same day and against the same opponent, the Southern Crusaders. This time as well the results were no different from the previous encounter. Batting first the AUM gave the Crusaders a target of 78 runs. The Crusaders chased down the target causing The American University of Malta to lose the match by 6 wickets. On 30 November they were about to face the Misda Warriors desperately looking for their first win as a team. In this match, the Misda Warriors won the toss and elected to bat first. Batting first the Warriors put up a total of 103 runs thus giving a target of 104 runs to the AUM. They faltered in the chase as they could only manage to get to a total of 72 runs in 10 overs thus falling short of the target by 32 runs. The match did not witness the first match win of the AUM as well. They played their next match against the Overseas CC on December 1, 2020. Though they faced a different opponent this time, the results were no differentThehi match again ended in a loss for the American University Of Malta. Batting first the Overseas CC scored 108 runs thus giving them a target of 104 runs. But the AUM could only get to a score of 83 runs at the loss of 1 wicket in their 10 overs falling short of the target by 25 runs.

Their next match was against the Overseas CC once again on the same day. The results did not improve this time as well. In this match, the AUM put up a score of 94 runs on the scoreboard at the end of their 10 overs. Thus setting a target of 95 runs for the Overseas CC. Though this was looking like a good total, the Overseas CC made it look small and chased down the target with 5 wickets remaining. Thus the American University of Malta was defeated again. Their next match was against Marsa CC. This time again the American University looked out of form and failed to bring out the match in its favour and faltered again. The match was reduced to 5 overs due to the weather conditions. Batting first thew Overseas could manage to put up a target of 54 runs for the AUM in 5 overs. The target was a good one to chase in 30 balls.

This time as well the American University of Malta fell short of the target by 13 runs. Consecutive losses affected their self-confidence to play in the following matches. Their last match of the season was against Marsa CC again. But this time the match was abandoned due to bad weather. Overall the first season was not a good one for the American University of Malta as they could not win a single match and thus failed to qualify for the playoffs.

ECS Malta 2021 season

The Americans and the University of Malta play their second season of the European Cricket Series looking to change the perception of the critics about them and to turn the tables in their favour. Their first match of the season was also the first match of the tournament Against the Royal Strikers. In this match, they put up a total of 118 runs for the loss of 2 wickets in 10 overs. This gave the strikers a target of 119 runs to chase in their 10 overs. During the chase, the bowlers did a fairly good job in restricting the opponents to a total of 46 by picking up all their wickets. This resulted in a win for the AUM by a big margin of 72 runs. This was officially the first win for the American University of Malta as a team. Thus they got their momentum going right from the first season.

Their second match was also against the same opponent and the results were also in favour of the AUM. In this match they chased down the target of 70 runs in just 7.4 overs, registering a 7-wicket victory. Their next match was again a win for the AUM, this time against the Atlas UTC Knights. They won this match by a margin of 22 runs. These consecutive wins gave them a stronghold in the tournament and eventually became one of the strongest teams in the season. They faced the same opponent in their next encounter but the results were different this time as the Atla UTC won the match by 34 runs.

Their following two matches were against Marsa. The American University of Malta lost both these matches by 4 wickets and 7 wickets respectively. Then they faced the Southern Crusaders in the next two matches. The first match was a loss for the AUM by 5 wickets but they managed to come back in the next match and won it by 4 runs. With this, they advanced to the quarter-final. In The 4th quarter-final, the American University of Malta faced the OVerseas and lost the match by 8 wickets. Thus their ECS journey ended here. This was by far the best reason they have had so far in the tournament. They will go into the next season high in confidence to perform better than the previous seasons.

ECS Malta 2022 season

The American University of Malta kicked off the 2022 season with two consecutive losses against the Masa by 7 wickets and 60 runs respectively. Their third match also ended in a loss against Gozo by a close margin of 2 runs. They came back to the game in their fourth match as they won against Gozo by 8 wickets. They played their fifth match against the Bugibba Blasters and won it by 3 wickets. Their following match was also against the same team this time the results were different, the American University of Malta Lost the match by 6 wickets.

Their next two matches were on October 27, 2002, against the Misda Warriors. In one of the mentioned matches, they were defeated by 16 runs whereas in the second match, they emerged victorious by 8 wickets. With this the group stage comes to an end, the American University of Malta advanced to the Quarter Final but was beaten ten here by the Edex Knights by 23 runs. Despite their roller coaster performances throughout the season, they were stopped only a few steps before the finals. Thus their first championship trophy remains a fantasy and hopefully, they will be able to achieve that too in the upcoming seasons.

ECS Malta 2023 season

The 2023 season of the Malta T20 Premier League is yet to be played and the results are yet to be determined. The American University of Malta Cricket Club will go into the second season of the tournament as the dark horse. They were greatly successful in making a huge impact with their performance in the three seasons they Played. Hopefully, they will manage to win the championship trophy of the European Cricket Series, Malta 2023. Their supporters will also wish their favourite players will bring the championship trophy home for the first time in the history of the team, in the next season they play. The players will also try to give their 1percentent as compared to their performances in the previous seasons and hopefully lift the championship trophy.

Stats of the American University of Malta Players

The American University of Malta is a team with a beautiful choice of young players who are best in their respective parts of the game. Though 2023 was not their best season, some players stand out in terms of runs scored and wickets taken. The following subheadings contain the lists of top run scorers and wicket takers for The American University of Malta.

Top run scorers the for American University of Malta

The following table is a list of the top five run scorers for the American University of Malta team in all the matches they played in all the seasons they were a part of in the European Cricket Series. The table enlists the number of matches played, runs scored, average per match, and their respective strike rate.

Darshit Patankar seals the number one spot on the leaderboard of top five runs scorers for The American University of Malta with 709 runs from 46 matches he was a part of. Darshit has an average of 19.16 per game and an amazing strike rate of 146.79. His personal best performance in the European Cricket Series is an unbeaten 60 runs against Edex Knights. He also has two 50s in the league.

Name of the Player	Matches Played	Runs Scored	Average	Strike Rate
Darshit Patankar	46	709	19.16	146.79
Mehboob Ali	28	723	30.12	256.38
Abhishek Prajapati	25	269	14.15	113.98
Zoheb Malek	36	418	20.90	144.13
Jitesh Patel	34	141	12.81	104.44

Top wicket-takers for the American University of Malta

The following table is a list of the top five run scorers for the American University of Malta team in all the matches they played in all the seasons they were a part of in the European Cricket Series. The table enlists the number of matches played, wickets taken, bowling average per match, and their respective economy.

Jitesh Patel tops the list of top five wicket-takers for the American University of Malta in their European Cricket Series. He is in the number one spot with 30 wickets from 31 matches he was a part of recording a bowling average of 15.43 per match and has an economy of 8.26, His all-time personal best was 2 wickets for 4 runs against Gozo in the 2021 season.

Name of the Player	Matches Played	Wickets Taken	Average	Economy
Jitesh Patel	31	30	15.43	8.26
Abhishek Prajapati	22	16	20.25	8.64
Abhishek Kuntala	12	12	14.00	8.84
Tarak Shah	21	21	11.71	8.83
Mehboob Ali	28	17	18.47	6.68

Though they could not manage to get their hands on the trophy, the 2020 to 2022 squad for the American University of Malta Cricket Club was an incredible team and gave an all-around performance in the entire season, it is no exaggeration to say that their all-around performance left a lot of people in awe. Despite their best fights they could not manage to reach the higher positions on the points table. But, it is for sure that their next season in the tournament will be packed with surprises and amazement for the American University of Malta Cricket Club supporters.