An electric bowling spell from Adrian Gordon wrecked Italy’s middle order and restricted them to 185 before a Lennox Cush century took USA to victory by 8 wickets to be crowned ICC WCL Division 4 Champions on Saturday at Ovale del Pianoro in Bologna, Italy. Cush was named Man of the Match for his 101 off 57 balls, carving up Italy’s bowling attack for 14 fours and four sixes.

 

“Judging from when we fielded, I think the wicket was good for batting,” said Cush. “Yesterday we played on the same track too and the ball was coming on well so I know once I get myself in and my feet moving properly, I can just bat.”

 

 

Italy won the toss and elected to bat on another warm and sunny day in Bologna. They reached 16 when Kevin Darlington and Carl Wright teamed up for a double strike in the fifth over. The first to go was Thushara Kurukulasuriya caught behind for 9 before Nic Northcote fell in the same manner for a second-ball duck.

 

Peter Petricola came in to put the innings back on course with the captain Alessandro Bonora. After seeing off the opening spell of Usman Shuja, the two men carried Italy to 55/2 at the first drinks break. But on the very first ball after resumption, the left-handed Petricola flicked a ball from Orlando Baker behind square and was called through for a run by Bonora. But Muhammad Ghous was alert at short fine leg and circled round to field before firing a direct hit at the keeper’s end with Bonora a yard short to have the captain run out for 11.

 

Damian Crowley came in and forged a decent partnership with Petricola to add 27 runs for the fourth wicket. It was stopped when Gordon unleashed himself on the Italian middle order.

 

“I just did the job that the captain told me to do,” said Gordon. “I put my head into it and went straight for the target.”

 

Petricola hit two fours in Gordon’s first five balls, but on the final ball of his first over, he pulled a short ball straight to Ghous at midwicket in the circle to fall for 42. Crowley then survived a few shouts for lbw and several plays and misses before he finally edged a drive to Rocky Marshall at backward point for 15 to make it 87 for 5. Gordon took his third when he squared up Hayden Patrizi with a gem that took the edge and popped up to Marshall who took the catch running in from point to make it 90 for 6. In one 25-ball stretch during his initial six-over spell, Gordon took 3 wickets for 2 runs, with one of those runs coming off a misfield.

 

“I think what’s the key ingredient with young Gordon is his willingness and his eagerness to learn,” said Massiah. “I think that will take him a very far way. Especially today I thought he bowled an exceptional spell. His first spell, it’s one of the better old ball spells that I’ve seen in a very long time. I thought he was pacy, he was very accurate and he was rewarded with three wickets initially and then he came back to take the fourth wicket which I thought was deserved.”

 

Cush took a wicket on his second ball when Michael Raso tried to sweep a full ball that produced a top edge. Sushil Nadkarni sprinted from his position at slip and covered a lot of ground to take a wonderful catch on the run at fine leg and Raso walked off for 9 to make it 105 for 7. Shuja came back after Gordon’s first spell and dismissed Hemantha Jayasena LBW for 16 with a full delivery into the pads that the batsman was late on trying to whip through midwicket and Italy was reduced to 116 for 8 in the 37^th over.

 

 

Teenager Roshendra Abeywickrama came in and along with 23-year-old Gayashan Munasinghe produced a terrific stand to repel the USA bowling attack. The two added 51 runs together in 12.2 overs to give Italy a fighting chance. Munasinghe finally fell on the last ball of the 49^th over when he checked his drive to a good length ball from Gordon and chipped a catch to Shuja coming in from mid off to leave for 24. Dilan Fernando Arsakulasuriya came in and plundered Cush in the final over for two fours and a six to give Italy a final push to 185 for 9 in their 50 overs.

 

USA finally got over their second ball jinx and then some as Cush opened the chase with Baker to take USA to 102 in 11 overs. They showed no mercy to each of Italy’s bowlers, making the same attack that had dominated USA only three days earlier look absolutely toothless on Saturday. USA was cruising so easily that they elected to take their batting power play at the start of the 11^th over in order to keep the field in when Italy opted not to take their bowling power play.

 

In USA’s first meeting against Italy, Cush had been out for 1 driving to mid off. In the rematch, he gave a chance while on 1 on his second delivery when he slammed a full ball from Arsakulasuriya straight back to the bowler who put down the stinging chance at waist height. Cush cashed in big time, making Italy pay for an extra hundred runs as a result.

 

Baker finally fell for 40 pulling a short ball to Raso at midwicket in the circle. Cush then added another 64 runs for the second wicket with Massiah. He went to 99 when he drove Petricola back over his head for six before pushing a single past Petricola to bring up his ton in only 55 balls. He fell two balls later, trying to hit Abeywickrama for six and picked out Petricola at deep square leg.

 

Wright came in to team with Massiah to get the 20 runs they needed for the championship. Wright hit the winning runs with a four lofted over mid on to finish 9 not out while the captain ended on 28. It was a satisfying victory for Massiah to get revenge on Italy and establish a mental advantage over them heading into Division 3.

 

“I thought it was a wake up call after we lost against Italy,” said Massiah. “We came in against Italy not knowing them. But after having a look at them, like I had said yesterday, we had a pretty good game plan and today I thought we executed it brilliantly and we were clinical in our performance. After going down against them and having to face them again in the Division 3 tournament, we think it was important for us to take the psychological edge.”

 

Nadkarni was named Player of the Tournament after scoring three half-centuries on his way to being USA’s leading run-scorer during the week with 216 runs at 108.00, collecting a Man of the Match award for each game in which he passed 50, including 64 not out in a crucial win over Nepal. Shuja was USA’s leading wicket-taker with 11 in 6 games at 13.27.

 

 

Nepal finished in third after walking all over Tanzania to win by 10 wickets, passing the first innings score of 73 in 12.3 overs. Tanzania beat Nepal by 9 runs defending 117 earlier in the week, but there were no such heroics in the field on this occasion. Cayman Islands defeated Argentina by 7 wickets in the fifth place game to ensure that Argentina finished the tournament winless.

 

With the Division 4 title, USA moves up in the ICC Global Rankings to 25^th in the world and will take on Italy, Denmark, Oman, Papua New Guinea and hosts Hong Kong at ICC WCL Division 3 from January 22-29, 2011.

 

Match Scorecard

Italy vs. USA

USA won by 8 wickets

Italy won the toss and elected to bat

Man of the Match: LJ Cush

 

Italy Batting

Batsman                      Runs    Balls    4s      6s          Dismissal

TA Kurukulasuriya      9          17          1          0           ct Wright+ b Darlington

A Bonora*                    11        51           1          0          runout (Ghous)

NM Northcote+            0          2             0          0          ct Wright+ b Darlington

PA Petricola                 42        56          4          0          ct Ghous b Gordon

DG Crowley                 15        21          2          0           ct Marshall b Gordon

HP Patrizi                      4         17           0          0          ct Marshall b Gordon

MG Raso                       9          23          1          0          ct Nadkarni b Cush

HS Jayasena               16        20          3          0          LBW Shuja

GRD Munasinghe       24       32           2          1          ct Shuja b Gordon

RS Abeywickrama       24       37           2          0          not out

DF Arsakulasuriya      15        5             2          1          not out

Total Extras                 16 (1 no ball, 0 byes, 9 leg byes, 6 wides)

Team Total                  185 for 9 in 50 overs

 

Fall of wicket: 16/1 (Kurukulasuriya), 16/2 (Northcote), 55/3 (Bonora), 82/4 (Petricola), 87/5 (Crowley), 90/6 (Patrizi), 105/7 (Raso), 116/8 (Jayasena), 167/9 (Munasinghe)

 

USA Bowling             Overs-Maidens-Runs-Wickets

KG Darlington            10-2-27-2

KU Shuja                     9-2-29-1

OM Baker                     5-0-21-0

MA Ghous                   10-0-27-0

A Gordon                     10-0-35-4

LJ Cush                       7-0-37-1

 

USA Batting

Batsman                      Runs    Balls    4s         6s         Dismissal

OM Baker                     40         34         6            1          ct Patrizi b Petricola

LJ Cush                       101       57         14          4          ct Petricola b Abeywickrama

SJ Massiah*                28         26         4            0          not out

CD Wright+                  9           12         1            0          not out

Total Extras                 10 (0 no balls, 0 byes, 4 leg byes, 6 wides)

Team Total                  188 for 2 in 21.4 overs

 

Did not bat: SS Nadkarni, A Thyagarajan, RA Marshall, KU Shuja, MA Ghous, A Gordon, KG Darlington

 

Fall of wicket: 102/1 (Baker), 166/2 (Cush)

 

Italy Bowling              Overs-Maidens-Runs-Wickets

GRD Munasinghe       7-0-64-0

DF Arsakulasuriya      3-0-26-0

HS Jayasena               4-0-37-0

PA Petricola                 4-0-35-1

RS Abeywickrama      3.4-0-22-0