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By Peter Della Penna in Bologna, Italy
Sushil
Nadkarni’s remarkable tournament continued with another Man of the
Match performance to lead USA to victory by 55 runs over Nepal at the
Ovale del Pianoro in Bologna, Italy, at ICC WCL Division 4. Nadkarni
was the backbone of USA’s innings, coming in at number five to score 64
not out off 85 balls in USA’s first innings total of 203 for 8.
Pic : Steve Massiah tosses the coin as Paras looks on. [Courtesy ICC]
“Once we got past 125, I was just looking to be not out at the end
hoping to get to 200,” said Nadkarni. “In between, I tried to set
different targets, 150, 175 and when the power play came on I thought
200 was gettable so that’s what we went after at the end.”
USA captain Steve Massiah won the toss and elected to
bat on a hot and sunny morning. It appeared things might head down the
same path as the prior day’s match against Italy when USA lost a wicket
on the second ball of their innings as Orlando Baker tried to fend off
a short ball from left arm paceman Amrit Bhattarai and gloved it
through to the keeper Mahesh Chhetri for a duck.
Massiah joined Carl Wright at the crease and the two looked very
assured in building a steady partnership of 31 runs. Wright was
outstanding until he played down the wrong line defending a full
delivery from medium pacer Binod Das and was out LBW for 16. Lennox
Cush stepped in next and caught fire quickly, striking five boundaries
in his first 11 balls.
However, he cooled down just as quickly when the spinners were
introduced. Left-arm orthodox spinner Basanta Regmi was not discouraged
when Cush swept him for six in the middle of the 18th over
and on the very next ball, tossed one up that Cush drove back to him
for his first wicket, sending Cush off for 32 to make it 82 for 3. He
took his second when Massiah fell for 29, trying to smash him against
the turn only to spoon an edge to Nepal captain Paras Khadka at point
as USA fell to 86 for 4.
Nadkarni was then joined by Aditya Thyagarajan, but another
left-arm orthodox spinner broke through when Rahul Vishvakarma got
Thyagarajan to gift another edge to point where this time it was Regmi
who took the catch to get rid of the batsman for 4 and USA fell to 98
for 5 in the 25th over. Rashard Marshall didn’t last long as
he played all around a quicker ball from off-spinner Sharad Vesawkar to
be out for 9 and Nepal was feeling good with the score at 111 for 6.
USA’s tail was shepherded well though by Nadkarni, who showed his
versatility coming in down the order and reining in his aggressiveness.
Nadkarni didn’t score a boundary until his 66th ball, but kept the runs ticking over by deftly nudging the spinners into the gaps.
Shuja got himself set for the second day in a row, only to get out
by middling a ball straight to a fielder when he cut a loose delivery
from Vesawkar to Regmi at backward point and Shuja was gone for 11 to
make it 139 for 7. Muhammad Ghous came and showed terrific poise under
pressure to team up with Nadkarni for the second highest partnership of
the innings, 44 for the eighth wicket. Ghous offered a sharp chance on
2 when he blasted a ball through the hands of the cover fielder.
Otherwise, he played a solid knock before popping one up from Bhattarai
to Regmi in the covers for 15 in 42 balls to make it 182 for 8.
Adrian Gordon came in to bat and stayed there for eight balls,
which was just long enough to keep Nadkarni from being stranded. USA
was at 189 for 8 heading into the final over before Nadkarni tore into
Khadka for 13 out of the final 14 runs, including a big six off the
final ball of the innings to take USA past 200.
“Obviously it was a very tense game,” said Massiah. “Obviously we
were on the back foot initially coming into today’s match with a must
win for either team so I guess it was very intense. I thought the guys
responded beautifully. The target we were looking for initially was
170. We knew once we got there it would be difficult for Nepal because
they’re not one of the better teams chasing so our target was 170. I
thought once we were able to make 200 I thought it would be a pretty
difficult task for them and in the end it proved to be.”
USA vs. Nepal Post Match Interview with Massiah from Peter Della Penna on Vimeo.
USA’s total of 203 turned out to be more than enough for USA to
defend as the fast bowlers did the lion’s share of the work at the
start of the chase to put their team in command. Usman Shuja seemed
programmed to do one thing: search and destroy. His short pitched
barrage rattled the Nepal top order badly and produced three wickets.
The first one for Shuja and USA was Anil Mandal. The Nepal opener
fell without scoring for the third time in five innings at the
tournament when he edged his fourth ball to Timroy Allen at second
slip, who fielded the entire second innings as a substitute for
Nadkarni, who himself had injured his left hand while batting.
In came Shakti Gauchan at number three looking more like a
nightwatchman than a top order batsman. Gauchan ducked, blocked and
flailed at everything short that Shuja, Baker and Kevin Darlington sent
his way. He looked in no way prepared for the type of bowling he has
going to face. After surviving a run out chance having only faced two
balls, Gauchan could only score 1 run in the next 34 balls before Baker
mercifully sent him on his way as he feathered a short of a length
delivery to Wright, making it 26 for 2 in the 11th over.
Khadka came in to join Chhetri, who looked solid while building
his 15, but Shuja was breathing fire at Nepal’s batsmen and was
rewarded with Chhetri’s wicket, edging one that was well taken by
Wright falling to his right to make it 26 for 3. Shuja’s third was in
his next over when the new man Vesawkar edged one to Allen at second
slip once more. Allen dove full extension to his right to complete a
spectacular catch to make it 31 for 4 in the 14th over.
“I thought Shuja really set the benchmark for the bowlers to
follow after,” said Massiah. “He bowled according to the plan and like
I said the plan was to bowl three-quarter length and push the Nepal
batsmen on the back foot because when we batted against the new ball it
wasn’t easy so we basically didn’t want to give them anything to come
forward to which is their comfort zone.”
Drinks were taken at the fall of the wicket and upon resumption,
Khadka was joined by Gyanendra Malla. The two fought off the rest of
Shuja’s spell, then did their best to neutralize the rest of USA’s pace
attack which was continually posing problems. While Darlington, Shuja
and Baker all got their name in the wickets column by the end of the
day, Gordon’s spell was just as noteworthy for tying down one end and
keeping the run rate in check. The two men batted through until the
second drinks break was taken with the score at 83 for 4 in 30 overs.
By that time, Khadka was on 34 and Malla 19.
Ghous had entered the fray in the 26th over and
immediately exerted pressure on Nepal, especially Khadka. Khadka was
only able to score on two of the first 15 balls he faced from Ghous
before drinks. After the break, he tried to use his feet to Ghous and
despite initial success, it lead to his downfall. On the third ball of
the 34th over, Khadka came down the track again, but Ghous
pulled back his length just a fraction enough to beat him in flight and
Wright collected for the stumping to have Nepal’s captain out for 44.
Ghous halted the partnership at 69 runs and the wheels started to fall
of Nepal’s innings straight away. Two overs later, he had the new man
Pradeep Airee out driving to Massiah at cover for 2 to make it 104 for
6.
“[Ghous] has been an absolute find for us because it’s a
department which we’ve always stressed the importance of and how it can
change games to have a quality spinner,” said Massiah. “He’s proving to
be that, but he’s still young and he’s in his embryonic stage of his
career so it’s gonna get more difficult as you keep going up the ladder
but I think he has the right attitude and like I’ve said before he’s
got the confidence.”
Baker came back on after Gordon’s lionhearted spell was complete
and removed Malla for 34 to end Nepal’s slim chance at victory and the
score was 114 for 7. Ghous took his third when Das slogged him to long
off where Shuja circled around and dove forward for a solid catch to
send Das off for 6, putting USA closer to finishing off the match at
123 for 8.
Darlington got Regmi out for 11 trying to slog, only to sky a
chance that Massiah took on the run after sprinting a long way from mid
on and Nepal was down to their last wicket with 134 on the board.
Vishvakarma slapped singles and twos to try to get to 50 overs, but
Bhattarai sliced Cush to Massiah at cover in the final over for 6 to
end the match as Nepal was bowled out for 148 with three balls left.
Massiah thought about heaving the ball in the air as he had done on his
first two catches, but instead stood with the ball clenched in his
fist, arms raised above his head before letting out a loud scream of
joy.
Italy and Tanzania won their matches on Thursday to move to 3-1
along with USA while Nepal dropped to 2-2. Cayman Islands are at 1-2
and will play Nepal on Friday to avoid being relegated to Division 5.
Argentina has already been relegated and will be playing USA for pride
on Friday in an attempt to try to disrupt USA’s near guaranteed
promotion to Division 3. Currently USA is at the top of the table based
on run rate. Italy and Tanzania are right behind them and they square
off in a virtual playoff on Friday to decide who will advance to Hong
Kong, presumably with USA as long as they aren’t tripped up by
Argentina.
“Every game is crucial,” said Nadkarni. “Cricket is a very funny
game. Granted Argentina’s been losing, but we have pretty good momentum
right now and I think all our batters would like to try to get in form,
take advantage of the bowling tomorrow. But I would be surprised if our
team came out and took the game lightly tomorrow because if we lose it
won’t be good for us.”
Match Scorecard
Nepal vs. USA
USA won by 55 runs
USA won the toss and elected to bat
Man of the Match: SS Nadkarni
USA Batting
Batsman Runs Balls 4s 6s Dismissal
OM Baker 0 2 0 0 ct Chhetri+ b Bhattarai
CD Wright+ 16 20 2 1 LBW Das
SJ Massiah* 29 53 5 0 ct Khadka b Regmi
LJ Cush 32 37 6 1 ct & b Regmi
SS Nadkarni 64 85 3 2 not out
A Thyagarajan 4 19 0 0 ct Vesawkar b Vishvakarma
RA Marshall 9 7 2 0 LBW Vesawkar
KU Shuja 11 27 0 1 ct Regmi b Vesawkar
MA Ghous 15 42 1 0 ct Regmi b Bhattarai
A Gordon 3 8 0 0 not out
Total Extras 20 (1 no ball, 0 byes, 6 leg byes, 13 wides)
Team Total 203 for 8 in 50 overs
Did not bat: KG Darlington
Fall of wicket: 0/1 (Baker), 31/2 (Wright), 82/3 (Cush), 86/4
(Massiah), 98/5 (Thyagarajan), 111/6 (Marshall), 139/7 (Shuja), 182/8
(Ghous)
Nepal Bowling Overs-Maidens-Runs-Wickets
A Bhattarai 10-0-37-2
BK Das 8-2-40-1
P Khadka 5-1-28-0
B Regmi 9-2-26-2
SP Gauchan 4-1-16-0
S Vesawkar 9-1-25-2
RK Vishvakarma 5-0-25-1
Nepal Batting
Batsman Runs Balls 4s 6s Dismissal
MK Chhetri+ 15 26 2 0 ct Wright+ b Shuja
AK Mandal 0 4 0 0 ct sub (Allen) b Shuja
SP Gauchan 1 36 0 0 ct Wright+ b Baker
P Khadka* 44 73 5 0 st Wright+ b Ghous
S Vesawkar 1 10 0 0 ct sub (Allen) b Shuja
G Malla 34 73 2 0 ct Wright+ b Baker
P Airee 2 9 0 0 ct Massiah b Ghous
B Regmi 11 18 1 0 ct Massiah b Darlington
BK Das 6 13 1 0 ct Shuja b Ghous
RK Vishvakarma 11 30 0 0 not out
A Bhattarai 6 7 0 1 ct Massiah b Cush
Total Extras 17 (1 no ball, 5 byes, 0 leg byes, 11 wides)
Team Total 148 all out in 49.3 overs
Fall of wicket: 11/1 (Mandal), 26/2 (Gauchan), 26/3 (Chhetri),
31/4 (Vesawkar), 100/5 (Khadka), 104/6 (Airee), 114/7 (Malla), 123/8
(Das), 134/9 (Regmi), 148/10 (Bhattarai)
USA Bowling Overs-Maidens-Runs-Wickets
KG Darlington 9-2-17-1
KU Shuja 8-0-17-3
OM Baker 10-0-32-2
A Gordon 10-0-37-0
MA Ghous 10-0-31-3
LJ Cush 2.3-0-9-1