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By Peter Della Penna

Two days after a massive defeat to Canada, USA bounced back to defeat Bahamas by 115 runs on Monday at Somerset Cricket Club in Bermuda at the ICC Americas Division One Tournament. The win kept USA in third place in the tournament at 2-1 while Bahamas remains winless at 0-3. Lennox Cush was named Man of the Match for scoring 48 runs in USA’s total of 307 for 8 before taking 2 for 38 bowling off-spin as Bahamas were bowled out for 192 in the 48th over.

For the first time in the tournament, USA won the toss, but for the third match in a row they batted first. Carl Wright, who opened the batting against Canada, was left out along with Timroy Allen in favor of Clain Williams and Muhammad Ghous. It meant that Sushil Nadkarni moved back up the order to open the innings with Orlando Baker. The two batsmen produced the highest partnership of USA’s innings with 82 runs for the first wicket at better than a run a ball.

Baker was the first wicket to fall, going for 33 to the medium pace of 51-year-old Mario Ford. Nadkarni then reached his half-century with captain Steve Massiah at the crease, but fell soon after for 53 to the spin of Narendra Ekanayake.

Wickets then fell at regular intervals for the rest of the innings as almost every USA batsman got a start without carrying on to a major score. Massiah fell for 34 to Ekanayake to make it 156 for 3 in the 28th over. Cush got some valuable time at the crease after notching back-to-back ducks, scoring 48 for USA. He put on 44 runs for the fourth wicket with Williams before Williams fell to Dwight Weakley for a run a ball 25. Cush fell soon after to the same bowler to leave USA at 227 for 5 in the 41st over.

A sharp burst from Aditya Thyagarajan helped get USA past 300. He continued his impressive form by hitting six fours and three sixes on his way to top score with 58 in only 43 balls, which makes it hard to believe he hasn’t earned a promotion up the order. Rashard Marshall teamed up with Thyagarajan for a 54-run sixth wicket stand before Marshall was dismissed by Marc Taylor for 24. Ashhar Mehdi was out for 11 to Whitcliff Atkinson before Thyagarajan was dismissed on the final ball of the innings by Jonathan Barry. Adrian Gordon finished not out on 1.

Gordon then came out and took the first wicket with only one run on the board courtesy of an extra as Atkinson was bowled for a six-ball duck at the end of the first over. Bahamas provided some resistance though in the form of Rohan Parks and Taylor, who played for the Bahamas U-19 squad against the USA U-19 team in Toronto last July at the Americas Qualifier for the ICC U-19 World Cup. The two put on 58 runs for the second wicket before Ghous took his first wicket of the tournament, having Parks caught behind by Mehdi for 39, which turned out to be the top score in the match for Bahamas.

Taylor and Barry tried to keep Bahamas in the hunt, forming a 35-run partnership before Taylor was finally dismissed by Baker for 31 to make it 94 for 3 in the 21st over. From there, wickets fell quickly as Ghous had Ford caught by Thyagarajan for 1 before Weakley was out LBW to Massiah, also for 1, making it 108 for 5 in the 27th. Barry and captain Gregory Taylor teamed up to add 30 runs before Barry was finally sent packing by Cush for 37. Massiah accounted for Ekanayake as he became the third Bahamas batsman to be out for 1, making the score 147 for 7 in the 33rd.

Bahamas did their best to survive all 50 overs as Albert Peters hung around until the 44th over before he was out for 11 to Cush. In the next over, captain Taylor was given out LBW to Bilal Khan for 33 before Gordon wrapped up the match, getting rid of Dereck Gittens for 2 to bowl out Bahamas with 14 balls to spare.

One thing USA will be looking to focus on heading into their Tuesday encounter with Bermuda will be cutting down on wides. USA gave up 27 wides and 36 extras in all on Monday with Cush the chief offender as he conceded 13 of his 38 runs on wides. Ghous was the only one of USA’s six bowlers on the day not to bowl a wide and he also returned the best bowling analysis for USA, taking 2 for 34 in 10 overs of off-spin with two maidens.

Bermuda improved to 3-0 on Monday with a 148-run win over Cayman Islands. In Monday’s other match, Canada also joined the host country at 3-0 but is slightly behind Bermuda on net run rate after beating Argentina by six wickets. Cayman Islands are fourth at 1-2 while Argentina is at the bottom of the table with three losses in as many games. Argentina also has a worse net run rate than Bahamas at the moment with the teams sharing identical records.