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By Peter Della Penna in Lauderhill, Florida (on Twitter)

Scorecard powered by the New Inning Foundation I Match Commentary

USA’s batting struggled for the second match in a row as they posted just 112 before losing by six wickets to Canada on Wednesday in a rain-reduced 30-over match at the 2012 ICC Americas U-18 Match Play Camp in Lauderhill, Florida. USA’s failure to find singles inside the circle during the middle overs when Canada had five men on the boundary cost them dearly as 101 of the 180 deliveries in their innings, 56%, wound up being dot balls.

The match was delayed by five hours and 15 minutes due to rain in the area that started early Wednesday morning and didn’t let up until 2 p.m. When the field was finally ready for play to begin, USA won the toss and elected to bat first. Vice-captain Dave Parikh was left out of the XI in favor of Omari Williams after Parikh sustained a leg injury while the team was warming up on the field less than an hour before the start of the match.

For the second day in a row, Steven Taylor lasted until just the fourth over before getting out caught. One ball after hitting a six over the boundary at extra cover, Taylor drove straight to Armaan Kapoor at short cover to depart for 12 with the score on 24. Two overs later, Abrash Khan got his second wicket when Shakeel Ahmad took a wild swing and missed to be clean bowled for 8 which reduced USA to 34 for 2 in the sixth over.

USA’s biggest partnership of the day produced 32 runs between Amarnauth Persaud and Randall Wilson with Persaud being the aggressor in the stand. He finished with 28 off 40 balls before he dragged a return catch straight back to leg-spinner Trevor Manoosingh in the 16th over. Wilson needed treatment on his right wrist at one point and eventually retired hurt on 8 off 34 balls after 18 overs with the score on 68 for 3. Eight balls later, Williams was bowled for 2 trying to slog Manoosingh over midwicket to make it 71 for 4.

Despite having plenty of wickets in hand midway through the innings, USA’s batsman could not find ways to up the scoring rate. In a seven over stretch from overs 15 through 21, USA scored just 13 runs as they mostly pushed the ball back to the bowler or drove straight to one of the four fielders inside the circle. Once pressure started to mount, they couldn’t respond in an efficient manner and wickets started falling more regularly.

Krish Goel was caught on the boundary at long off to give Canada U-18 captain Sudeepta Aurka a wicket to make the score 82 for 5 in the 23rd. Zahib Tariq was dismissed without scoring for the second match in a row when he was stumped off his fourth ball to give Nikhil Dutta the first of two wickets. Roshan Varadarajan came in at number nine and lasted 10 balls before going to slog medium pacer Amanpal Gillar and skied a return catch to go for 4 to start the 27th over. Wilson returned at the fall of Varadarajan’s wicket with the score 96 for 7 and managed to add five more runs to his score before he was bowled by Gillar to make it 108 for 8 with nine balls to go in the innings.

The tournament structure states that a bonus point is up for grabs at the end of the first innings for either side. It goes to the batting side if they bat out their overs without losing 10 wickets but if they are bowled out then the fielding side claims the point. USA seemed to be unaware of this in the final over which resulted in the final two wickets going down.

Arsh Buch was runout after hesitating to go for a run with Vibhav Altekar, who had been in since the 16th over. Ryan Persaud entered with three balls to play in the innings and on the fifth ball of the over tried to slog Dutta but was caught at cover and USA was bowled out for 112 in 29.5 overs giving a bonus point to Canada in the process. Altekar finished not out on 22 off 37 balls. Manoosingh had Canada’s best figures with 2 for 17 in six overs.

Canada went about the chase in methodical fashion with Aurka being the only batsman showing any aggression in going after the target, scoring 40 of Canada’s first 61 runs. Steven Taylor wound up opening the bowling with Arsh Buch and was USA’s most threatening pace bowler of the first two days. He bowled out his six overs, taking 0 for 17. Stephan Joseph was run out off Taylor’s bowling, trying to steal a single to point where Goel made a solid diving stop and threw to Ahmad with the gloves on who whipped off the bails to dismiss Joseph for 13 with the score at 48 in the 12th. After 12 overs were completed, Taylor took over wicketkeeping duties from Ahmad for the rest of the innings.

Two deliveries after being dropped by Williams at long on, Aurka drove Ryan Persaud’s leg-spin to Ahmad at long off to make it 61 for 2 in the 18th. Ahmad then had Kapoor LBW for 3 to make it 69 for 3 in the 21st as the run rate started to inch up. However, Dutta did just enough to keep the scoring rate creeping along towards the target. He did offer a chance on 13 in the 24th over when Taylor missed a stumping off Goel, but went on to take the team across the line with 35 not out in 61 balls.

Gurkaran Dhillon was run out for 11 in the 27th as Goel and Ahmad teamed up again in the field, but the match ended in the 29th after a wide by Ahmad gave Canada the winning run with seven balls to spare. Canada moves to 2-0 with the win while USA remains winless. Ryan Persaud had USA’s best figures with 1 for 17 in five.

USA has an off day on Thursday while Canada and Bermuda square off for the second time in the U-18 event. Live coverage on DreamCricket.com, made possible in part by the New Inning Foundation, begins at 9:45 a.m. EST.