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By Peter Della Penna

For the second day in a row USA lost early wickets, but this time they could not recover and eventually lost by 9 wickets to their archrival Canada on day two of the ICC Americas Division One Tournament at the National Sports Club in Hamilton, Bermuda. Stand-in captain Rizwan Cheema was named Man of the Match for Canada after he blasted an unbeaten century to lead Canada’s chase of 190.

Pic (Right): Rizwan Cheema [Courtesy: Cricket Canada]

USA was sent in to bat by the opposition once again on Saturday. Sushil Nadkarni moved down the order, allowing Carl Wright to open with Orlando Baker. However, the maneuver failed to pay any dividends for any of the parties involved. A day after scoring a century, Baker was the first man dismissed, out for 8 to Calvert Hooper. Wright followed soon after for 13, also to Hooper, to make it 42 for 2 in 13 overs. Captain Steve Massiah was claimed by Khurram Chohan for 17 before Hooper finished his opening spell by getting Lennox Cush for a second-ball duck to peg USA back at 51 for 4 in the 15th over.

Nadkarni was run out for 8 by Trevin Bastiampillai to put USA into an even deeper hole at 65 for 5 in the 22nd over before USA staged a mini recovery. Aditya Thyagarajan put on 38 runs for the sixth wicket with Rashard Marshall before he fell for 33 to the off-spin of Hiral Patel, a member of Canada’s 2010 ICC U-19 World Cup squad. Two overs later, Patel teamed up with his former captain from the U-19 World Cup, Rustam Bhatti, to have Ashhar Mehdi caught behind for 1 and USA was in tatters at 113 for 7.

Marshall and Timroy Allen then combined for USA’s biggest partnership of the match, putting on 68 runs for the 8th wicket before Allen departed to paceman Umar Bhatti for 37 in the 46th over. Marshall fell six balls later to Sunil Dhaniram for 48, finishing with USA’s top score in the innings. Bilal Khan was the last man dismissed for 2 by Umar Bhatti, leaving Adrian Gordon unbeaten on 6 as USA was all out for 189 in 49.1 overs.

Cheema came out and wasted no time taking it to the USA bowlers, teaming up with Bastiampillai to get Canada off to a flyer and they never looked back. Orlando Baker, who was one of only two players who did not bowl in USA’s win over Argentina on Friday, made the first and only breakthrough of the day in the 22nd over, having Bastiampillai caught by Allen for 27 to make it 98 for 1. Cheema continued his rampage with Patel, finishing 114 not out in only 96 balls with 10 fours and five sixes. Gordon received some harsh punishment, going for 21 runs in his first two overs opening the innings only to come back at the end of the match to be hit for another 21 in a second two-over spell. Patel finished 36 not out with four boundaries as Canada reached the target with 11 overs to spare.

USA now has a day off to regroup before taking on Bahamas on Monday at 10:30 a.m. local time in Bermuda. In Saturday’s other matches, Bermuda joined Canada at 2-0 after beating Argentina by 166 runs. Cayman Islands are level with USA at 1-1 in a tie for third place after their victory by 111 runs over Bahamas.