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By Peter Della Penna in Fort Lauderdale

Salman Ahmad claimed three wickets before leg-spinner Gurpreet Sandhu wiped out the lower order as USA bowled out Bermuda for 50 in 17.2 overs before winning by 10 wickets at Brian Piccolo Park on Friday at the ICC Americas U-19 Division One in Cooper City, Fla. Sandhu was named Man of the Match after finishing with 5 for 7. It’s the first five-wicket haul for a USA U-19 player since Saqib Saleem took 5 for 38 against Ireland at the 2009 U-19 World Cup Qualifier in Toronto. With the win, USA has clinched a berth at the 2011 U-19 World Cup Qualifier scheduled for July 28-August 9 in Ireland.

“The thing is that when we get early breakthroughs, we tend to not relax and that’s what we’ve been focusing on the whole tournament, is not relaxing,” said Sandhu. “When you’re on top is to really choke the opposition down, make sure that you don’t let them go and that’s what we’ve been focusing on. We’ve been focusing on keeping the energy up in the field and that’s I think what really won us the game.”

USA won the toss and sent Bermuda in to bat first on a grassy wicket. On the second ball of the match, Ahmad clean bowled Christian Burgess for none. Four overs later, Ahmad bowled danger man Kamau Leverock for 9 and followed it up by removing William White for 9 by bowling him behind his legs to make it 26 for 3.

“We wanted to make sure that we get the opposition out as soon as we can,” said USA U-19 coach Robin Singh about the decision to field first on a day where storms were predicted. There was some rain during the match, but never enough to take the teams off the field. “It was nothing to do with the wicket. I think if it wasn’t a problem with the weather, we would have batted first.”

With the top three gone, there was little resistance provided down the order. Mital Patel took two in four balls to make it 27 for 5 in the eighth over. With the tail exposed, Sandhu was brought on and struck with his sixth ball to remove Tre Manders for 3 on the last ball of the 12th over to make it 42 for 6. Sandhu struck twice more in the 14th and 16th before taking two in the 18th to finish off the innings with figures of 5 for 7.

Image (right) - USA U-19 bowler Salman Ahmad gets a high five from captain Abhijut Joshi (10) after the bowling Bermuda's Christian Burgess. Ahmad took three wickets in all and it wasn't long before Bermuda was all out for 50. [Courtesy: Peter Della Penna/DreamCricket]

“Once you get rid of the top batsmen, it’s easier to get the tailenders out if you keep focused and keep doing what you’re doing,” said Sandhu. “Once we got the top order batsmen out as the lower order comes around, those batsmen aren’t as good as the top order batsmen so we keep focused and we go all the way and that’s what the difference has been.”

Steven Taylor and Cameron Mirza walked out to open for USA and despite the threat of rain, confidently went about knocking off the runs. Taylor did offer one chance at mid off on 15 with the score on 35 in the 9th over, but it was put down and he continued with Mirza until the target was reached. Taylor finished 21 not out and Mirza unbeaten on 17. Mirza leads the team with 164 runs in the tournament and has yet to be dismissed.

Former West Indies Test spinner Lance Gibbs was on hand to watch USA play on Friday and spoke to the team after the match, as did USACA President Gladstone Dainty. Each man encouraged the team to keep performing as they have all week and finish off the tournament undefeated with a win over Canada.

“We’ve really not seen Canada much,” said Singh. “I think as a team we are quite confident. We’re pretty much well prepared for them and I think obviously they are one of the better teams in the competition so hopefully we can play good cricket tomorrow and maintain our standards.”

USA will play Canada on Saturday inside the stadium at Central Broward Regional Park for the tournament title. Both teams have qualified for Ireland, along with the host team, Scotland, Kenya, Namibia, Afghanistan, Nepal, Papua New Guinea and Vanuatu. DreamCricket will have live coverage of USA’s match against Canada beginning at 9:30 a.m.