By Peter Della Penna

Lennox Cush followed up a sterling innings of 91 with two wickets in a handy spell of off-spin bowling to be named Man of the Match as USA held off a gutsy effort from Bahrain to win by 19 runs at the Birendra Sainik Maha Vidyalaya Ground at the Army School in Bhaktapur, just outside of Kathmandu, Nepal on Day Two of the ICC World Cricket League Division Five Tournament. Cush’s 91 is the highest score of the tournament thus far.

Pic (Right): Lennox Cush wasn't afraid to use his feet to the spinners, lofting one out of the ground here on his way to 91. [Courtesy: Daniela Zaharia/USACA]

“Today the bowler’s bowled very well early on,” said Cush. “You had to get in. I went in at a time where we were struggling a bit. They were on top of us. The ball was gripping and spinning on the wicket but I decided to counterattack.”

Carl Wright and Orlando Baker got USA off to a good start with a half-century partnership as they played the medium pace of Yaser Sadeq and Hamal Abbasi with ease. However, things started to turn around for Bahrain with the introduction of left-arm orthodox spinner Qadar Sayeed. Wright tried to hit against the spin and skied a top edge to point to be out for 22 at the start of the 14th over to make it 64 for 1. Sayeed struck in his next over only four runs later, getting one to grip the pitch as Baker chipped a return catch to the bowler to walk off for 34.

Cush then came in and combined with Steve Massiah to wrestle back momentum for USA. While Massiah nudged and nurdled for ones and twos trying to rebuild the innings for his team, Cush set the tone for his own innings on the sixth ball he faced, coming down the track to smash Sayeed over long off and into a Pepsi sign past the boundary for a big six. In the next over against the off-spin of Adil Hanif, Cush cleared the ropes again over long off to put the Bahrain attack on the back foot. Massiah was happy to give Cush the strike when possible and the captain didn’t hit his first boundary until he was 41 balls into his innings when he smoked one through the covers. The two put on 140 runs together before Cush was finally bowled by off-spinner Zafar Zaheer, around early trying to pull a good length ball, and the score became 208 for 3 in the 43rd over.

Wickets then fell fairly rapidly to end the innings as Zaheer accounted for Rashard Marshall for 16 to make it 240 for 4. Aditya Thyagarajan fell four runs later for a duck as Zaheer got his third and then Massiah finally was dismissed for a grind it out 67 to make it 251 for 6 in the 48th over. A small burst from Timroy Allen brought USA up to 273 for 6 at the end of their 50 overs.

Bahrain, who had been rolled over for 98 on Saturday by Singapore, came out fighting hard against USA. Shahzad Ahmed and Imran Sajjad showed no signs of trouble against the opening pace combo of Kevin Darlington and Allen, taking the score to 55 before Imran Awan came on to dismiss Ahmed LBW for 16 playing across to a full length delivery.

Pic (Right): Cush's bowling was also instrumental in USA's win as he took 2 for 44 in 10 overs. [Courtesy: Daniela Zaharia/USACA]

Abdul Majeed came out at number three and the score accelerated even faster as both he and Sajjad repeatedly cross batted anything marginally short to the ropes. Sajjad looked very dangerous the longer he stayed out there as he refused to slow down his pace, but it proved to be his downfall in the end as he swung across the line one too many times. Cush came on to bowl off-spin in the 17th over and on the last ball of his fourth over, sent down a good length ball that Sajjad couldn’t resist. He went for a big heave but was around far too early and the stumps were knocked back as Sajjad departed for 75 to make it 131 for 2 in 23 overs.

Bahrain had an excellent run rate and was well on course to chase down the runs, but after Sajjad fell, they couldn’t construct a decent partnership to build up some steam to get them to the target. The next blow for USA was struck by Baker, who got Ashraf Yaqoob LBW for 6 to one that kept low to make it 145 for 3. Baker then took care of the set batsman Majeed for 47 on the first ball of the 34th over. Majeed had been dropped on back-to-back deliveries off of Baker in the 32nd over, but the mistakes didn’t cost USA much. Massiah erased those memories with a superb effort running from cover to take a skied chance at mid off making the score 162 for 4.

Bahrain looked like they were still in with a chance when Hanif, who came in at number five, was at the crease. He put on 42 runs with Azeem ul Haq before ul Haq was out LBW for 9 trying to sweep the off-spin of Sudesh Dhaniram, who bowled a very stingy 10-over spell to stem the flow of runs for Bahrain. Hanif was the next man out for 46 to make it 227 for 6 in the 45th over, top edging a pull off a short delivery from Darlington to give a simple catch to Wright behind the stumps. From there, Bahrain’s hopes vanished and it was only a matter of time before the match was wrapped up. Cush took another wicket while Allen came back on to bowl off-spin after opening the innings bowling pace alongside Darlington. Allen took two wickets in three balls in the 48th over before Darlington sealed the match bowling Abbasi with a yorker in the 49th as Bahrain was bowled out for 254.

USA now moves to 2-0 in the tournament to top the table along with Nepal, who followed up a victory over Jersey on Saturday with a thumping nine-wicket win over Fiji on Sunday. Jersey beat Singapore on Sunday to make both teams 1-1 while Bahrain and Fiji are at 0-2. Everyone has an off day on Monday while the action resumes on Tuesday with USA taking on Jersey at Tribhuvan University. The match is scheduled for a 9 a.m. start, 10:15 p.m. EST Monday night in the USA with live coverage on Dreamcricket.com.
 

Official Scorecard
ICC WCL Division Five
Bahrain vs. USA
USA won by 19 runs
USA won the toss and elected to bat
Man of the Match: Lennox Cush

USA Batting
Batsman 		Runs	Balls	4s	6s	Dismissal
CD Wright+ 		22	34	3	0	ct Yaqoob b Sayeed
OM Baker		34	56	5	0	c & b Sayeed
SJ Massiah*		67	92	3	2	ct Sayeed b Dar
LJ Cush		        91	90	11	2	b Zaheer
RA Marshall		16	10	1	1	st Ahmed+ b Zaheer
A Thyagarajan		0	3	0	0	ct Abbasi b Zaheer
S Dhaniram		3	8	0	0	not out
TP Allen		12	9	0	1	not out
Total Extras		28 (2 no balls, 4 byes, 6 leg byes, 16 wides)
Team Total 		273 for 6 in 50 overs

Did not bat: S Verma, I Awan, KG Darlington

Fall of Wicket: 64/1 (Wright), 68/2 (Baker), 208/3 (Cush), 
240/4 (Marshall), 244/5 (Thyagarajan), 251/6 (Massiah). 

Bahrain Bowling	Overs-Maidens-Runs-Wickets
Y Sadeq		        5-0-31-0
H Abbasi		6-1-37-0
Q Sayeed		8-0-36-2
A Hanif		        5-0-18-0
T Dar			10-1-59-1
Z Zaheer		10-1-48-3
I Sajjad		6-0-34-0

Bahrain Batting
Batsman		Runs	Balls	4s	6s	Dismissal
S Ahmed+ 		16	26	2	0	LBW Awan
I Sajjad		75	77	8	2	b Cush
A Majeed		47	60	5	0	ct Massiah b Baker
A Yaqoob 		6	17	1	0	LBW Baker
A Hanif 		46	56	4	0	ct Wright+ b Darlington
A ul Haq		9	16	0	0	LBW Dhaniram
T Dar			10	17	0	0	b Cush
Q Sayeed		4	8	0	0	ct Massiah b Allen
Y Sadeq*		12	7	0	1	b Allen
Z Zaheer		2	3	0	0	not out
H Abbasi		8	5	0	1	b Darlington
Total Extras		19 (0 no balls, 4 byes, 7 leg byes, 8 wides)
Team Total		254 all out in 48.4 overs

Fall of Wicket: 55/1 (Ahmed), 131/2 (Sajjad), 145/3 (Yaqoob), 162/4 (Majeed), 
204/5 (ul Haq), 227/6 (Hanif), 230/7 (Dar), 244/8 (Sadeq), 245/9 (Sayeed), 
254/10 (Abbasi). 

USA Bowling		Overs-Maidens-Runs-Wickets
KG Darlington	        7.4-0-51-2
TP Allen		6-0-30-2
I Awan			3-0-23-1
S Dhaniram		10-1-34-1
S Verma		        2-0-17-0
LJ Cush		        10-1-44-2
OM Baker		10-0-44-2

Notes: Orlando Baker served as USA’s wicketkeeper for the first 
7 overs. Carl Wright then put on the pads to wicketkeep beginning 
with the 8th over until the end of the match.