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USA Cricket: Squad ready to do battle at 2012 ICC WCL Division Four in Malaysia

openingbat — Sun, 02 Sep 2012 20:41:00 GMT

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By Peter Della Penna in Kuala Lumpur (on Twitter)

Nineteen months after the heartache of a last place finish and relegation in Hong Kong, USA will attempt to reestablish a positive presence in 50-over cricket on Monday at 2012 ICC WCL Division Four in Kuala Lumpur, the next phase of qualifying for the 2015 ICC World Cup in Australia and New Zealand. USA needs a top two finish to advance back into ICC WCL Division Three, which will take place next year in Bermuda from April 28-May 5.

USA captain Steve Massiah makes his return to the squad after missing the 2012 ICC World Twenty20 Qualifier when his travel was restricted after a November arrest in connection with an alleged $50 million mortgage fraud scheme. Speaking publicly for the first time since November, Massiah said at the captains’ press conference on the eve of the tournament that he doesn’t feel he let the team down at all for having to miss the tour to the UAE.

“I don’t think I’ve let the team down,” Massiah said. “Due to certain personal circumstances I wasn’t able to make it. I’m here to do my best for the United States of America, do whatever it takes for us to achieve qualification.”

Image (right) - Steve Massiah at the opening press conference for 2012 ICC WCL Division Four in Malaysia. [Courtesy: Peter Della Penna/DreamCricket.com]

Two other players returning to the squad on this tour are Timroy Allen and Aditya Thyagarajan. Both players are making comebacks after injuries.

“It’s a pleasure to be back and first and foremost I must say I really do appreciate the selectors giving me this opportunity, helping the USA get back where we’re supposed to be. It felt really good to be back with my teammates,” Allen said. He also doesn’t want to go home regretting a missed opportunity and wants to get the event started with a win against Malaysia in the opening match at Bayuemas Oval.

“It’s a long flight here and I really don’t want to go back home without holding something so I’m really ready for this tournament. I have no doubt in my team that we’ll come out on top in this game because these guys are basically hungry for a win and we want to give all our spectators back home something to start off with and we don’t want to fall in a hole right off the top.”

Allen took 2 for 37 in 10 overs in the team’s warm-up match win over Denmark on Thursday. Massiah says Allen’s value to USA is immense because of the many ways in which he can be used.

“He performs a dual role for me in the sense that he opens the bowling and also I have the option of using him as a spinner if the wicket is conducive to it and he’s a tremendous lower order batsman,” Massiah said. “In my humble opinion he’s probably the most talented cricketer in America.”

Meanwhile, Thyagarajan top scored with 48 coming in at number four in the warm-up match against Denmark, his first match in a USA uniform since injuring his right knee at 2011 ICC WCL Division Three in Hong Kong, and says he’s looking forward to the opportunity to make his mark once more for USA.

“It’ll be a personal challenge playing six games in eight days first tournament after injury but I’m looking forward to it and positive that I’ll be able to get through it and hopefully do well for the team,” Thyagarajan said. Allen says he’s extremely happy to make a return to the squad alongside Thyagarajan.

“Aditya has always been a fighter for us,” Allen said. “It’s not like we’re gonna go out and depend on one batsman, but that’s one person you can really depend on. If he gets out, it’s not because of a crazy shot. He probably got a good ball. He’s patient and focused and I just love when he’s in the team.”

One player who looked noticeably slimmer during the team’s training session on Sunday was Sushil Nadkarni, who says he’s lost 10 to 15 pounds through a refined training regimen since the team returned in March from the 2012 ICC World Twenty20 Qualifier.

“After the Dubai tour and working with Robin a little bit in that tournament, I kind of realized some of the things I needed to work on when I was putting my time in the gym,” Nadkarni said. “It wasn’t that I wasn’t putting time in the gym before, but I just realized after talking to him and others where I should be focusing or what are the different things I should be doing. So I’ve been focusing on a lot of sprinting, a lot of running. I’ve been doing some weight training as well so I’m trying to do activities that would help me optimize or maximize my performance on the cricket field.”

As far as the team composition for the first match against Malaysia, the tour management may have a difficult decision on their hands with key players Usman Shuja, Aditya Mishra and Steven Taylor all arriving in Malaysia on Sunday afternoon less than 24 hours before the start of the tournament. All three looked exhausted at the tournament’s opening ceremony just a few hours removed from more than 20 hours of flights from the USA. Massiah says their status will be assessed in the morning before a game-time decision is made.

Image (left) - USA's Akeem Dodson, Andy Mohammed, Abhimanyu Rajp, bowling coach Charlie Javed and Ryan Corns at the the tournament opening ceremony. [Courtesy: Peter Della Penna/DreamCricket.com]

“It’s the first game and we’d like to start on a winning note so probably we’ll go with our best combination for tomorrow because it’s important that we start well so this way we’re not behind the eight ball,” Massiah said. “We’ll make a game time decision tomorrow as to how they feel. But obviously it’ll take them at least two days for them to recover. Hopefully they can be fine. We trust their judgment and we’ll do whatever it takes to help the team so we just have to see how they feel.”

USA has gone through a similar situation in the recent past with poor results. At 2010 ICC WCL Division Five in Nepal, Nadkarni missed the first two matches while attending to some work obligations back in Texas, then flew in and was slotted back into the lineup straightaway against Jersey and Singapore for the third and fourth matches of the tournament. He made 1 off 7 balls and a golden duck respectively so Nadkarni is very aware of the challenge that lies ahead for Shuja, Mishra and Taylor.

“Talking about myself, it was tough,” Nadkarni said. “It was about a 25-hour flight and then a change in timings and everything. It was a little bit tough to get into the ground and play an international game the next day. Overall it does take its toll on your body and you might find yourself a little sluggish in the field because your body is trying to catch up to the time differences, etc.”

Thyagarajan knows this will be a tough event, but if they can grind out a top two finish, the path ahead will be easier in the spring at 2013 WCL Division Three where Bermuda, Italy, Oman and Uganda await the two teams that get promoted at the end of this tournament in Malaysia.

“I think this will be an extremely tough tournament,” Thyagarajan said. “This reminds me of the Division Five tournament in Nepal. Like I said then, if we get through Five, we’ll surely get through Four. I say the same thing here. If we get through Four, we’ll surely get through Three. Everybody needs to play really well.”

DreamCricket.com will have live coverage for all of USA’s matches at 2012 ICC WCL Division Four beginning with the team’s first match on Monday against Malaysia from Bayuemas Oval. Each match is scheduled to begin at 10:30 a.m. local time, 10:30 p.m. EST and 7:30 p.m. PST the previous day in America.

USA Cricket: USA beats Denmark by 4 wickets in Malaysia warm-up fixture

openingbat — Thu, 30 Aug 2012 17:37:00 GMT

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By Peter Della Penna in (on Twitter)

USA exercised some mental demons on Thursday in Kuala Lumpur when they defeated Denmark by four wickets in a warm-up fixture at Royal Selangor Club ahead of 2012 ICC WCL Division Four, which starts Monday in Malaysia. In January 2011, USA lost twice to Denmark at ICC WCL Division Three in Hong Kong, failing to chase targets of 194 and 241, but on Thursday they were set 173 to win and managed to get across the line with 15 overs to spare.

USA won the toss at Royal Selangor Club and sent Denmark in to bat. The three players in USA’s squad who didn’t participate in the warm-up are the three players still yet to arrive in Malaysia: Aditya Mishra, Usman Shuja and Steven Taylor. However, USA’s victory without them will give the squad a big confidence boost knowing that they won without three players who will almost certainly be in USA’s first choice starting XI come Monday, September 3 in USA’s first match of the tournament against Malaysia.

Denmark’s highest score off the bat came from opener Shehzad Ahmed, who made 25 off 62 balls, as no one was able to go on to make a significant score after getting a start. The biggest partnership of the innings for Denmark was 47 runs for the second wicket between Ahmed and Anders Lambert, who made 22. It was broken by Muhammad Ghous, who had Ahmed caught behind by Akeem Dodson, one of three dismissals completed by the wicketkeeper.

The second high score in the innings for Denmark came from extras with 24, including eight byes. USA’s bowling attack turned in a solid combined performance. Playing in his first match in a USA uniform since July 2011, Timroy Allen opened the bowling and took 2 for 37 in 10 overs with three maidens. Left-arm seamer Elmore Hutchinson finished with 0 for 18 off six and Orlando Baker took 1 for 26 in seven.

In the spin department, Ghous claimed 1 for 25 in 10 overs while fellow off-spinner Abhimanyu Rajp finished with USA’s best figures on the day, taking 3 for 33 off 10 including the wickets of Lambert and Denmark captain Michael Pedersen. USA captain Steve Massiah took 2 for 15 in six overs while Ryan Corns bowled one over, taking 0 for 7. Denmark was 74 for 1 at one stage but lost wickets at fairly regular intervals from there on out, eventually getting bowled out on the final ball of the innings for 172.

Dodson and Sushil Nadkarni opened the batting for USA. The side stumbled at the start of the chase when Dodson was dismissed for a second-ball duck followed six balls later by the departure of Massiah for 5 to put USA in an early hole at 11 for 2 in the third over.

Aditya Thyagarajan joined Nadkarni and the two veterans steadied the ship for USA by adding 74 for the third wicket. Nadkarni scored at the quicker pace, eventually finishing with 41 off 36 balls, including five fours and three sixes before he was dismissed by Hamid Shah in the 15th over.

Image (right) - Aditya Thyagarajan file photo. [Courtesy: Bryan Vandenburgh/ICC]

Corns came in and scored 12 off 29 at number five before he was bowled by Henrik Hansen to make it 110 for 4 at the start of the 23rd. Thyagarajan, playing in his first match for USA since getting injured against Denmark in Hong Kong last year, fell just short of a half-century when he was caught behind off Hansen for 48 off 78 balls, including seven fours and a six, to make it 133 for 5.

Baker fell LBW for 11 in the 32nd to leave the score at 151 for 6 and give Denmark a sniff at victory but Andy Mohammed and Allen erased any doubts with a 27 run-stand off just 19 balls to seal the match for USA. Mohammed struck four boundaries in his 18 not out off 20 balls while Allen clubbed two sixes, including one maximum that brought up the winning runs, in his short stay to finish 14 not out off 10 balls as USA sealed the win with 90 balls remaining.

DreamCricket.com will have live coverage for all of USA’s matches at ICC WCL Division Four beginning with the team’s first match on Monday against Malaysia from Bayuemas Oval. Each match is scheduled to begin at 10:30 a.m. local time, 10:30 p.m. EST and 7:30 p.m. PST the previous day in America.

USA Cricket: Andy Mohammed replaces Rashard Marshall in USA squad for 2012 ICC WCL Division Four

openingbat — Mon, 27 Aug 2012 06:19:00 GMT

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By Peter Della Penna (on Twitter)

Batsman Andy Mohammed has been added to the USA squad in place of Rashard Marshall for 2012 ICC WCL Division Four, which begins Monday, September 3 in Malaysia. According to an ICC spokesperson, USACA made a request to add Mohammed as an “injury replacement” for Marshall, which was approved.

However, according to an anonymous source, Marshall is not injured but was removed from the squad after requesting to leave the USA on the evening of August 31 due to a work assignment. USA’s squad is due to leave Los Angeles for Kuala Lumpur in the early morning hours of August 27. Meanwhile, Steven Taylor, Usman Shuja and Aditya Mishra will all be departing from the USA four days later on August 31.

Prior to the official USACA squad announcement on August 3, Shuja, Mishra and Taylor had received permission to join the squad late. Shuja and Mishra made the request due to work commitments while Taylor is currently in Barbados as the captain of the ICC Americas U-19 squad at the West Indies Cricket Board Regional U-19 Tournament. The ICC Americas U-19 squad’s last match is August 29 and they will not depart Barbados until August 30.

Yet, it appears that Marshall’s request to join the squad late for work reasons was denied because he notified the USACA board on August 16 instead of prior to the squad being chosen and submitted to the ICC for the August 3 deadline. If Marshall was replaced by USACA due to work reasons, it would be contradicting their formal request to the ICC to replace Marshall due to injury.

In an email – obtained from an anonymous source – dated August 16, and addressed from USACA selection chairman Selwyn Caesar to USACA General Manager Manaf Mohamed, Caesar wrote the following:

I received a call from Rashard Marshall this morning advising he has an unscheduled work assignment on Friday August 31st and would like arrangements be made for his travel on the evening of August 31st.

I am aware the call should have been directed to you, however I request you arrange to call Rashard this afternoon (he may be sleeping today for work tonight) in order to work out the details and advise accordingly.

Mohamed then sent out an email to numerous USACA administrators which stated:

Regarding e-mail from Selwyn below.. Spoke to Rashard today. He only found out a day or so ago that he has to be at work on Aug 31 to receive his work assignments for the month.

Should I re-schedule his flight out or do I need to replace?? Please advise.

This would not be the first time USACA has attempted to pull off a questionable maneuver with regards to replacing a player for an ICC event. At 2011 ICC WCL Division Three in Hong Kong, Aditya Thyagarajan was lost for the tournament following the second match after dislocating his right knee. USACA then requested to add assistant coach/bowling coach Howard Johnson to the squad as an injury replacement.

According to sources, the ICC agreed to accept Johnson as a replacement player under the premise that Johnson would only be utilized in case three other players also became injured at which point USA would have had no choice but to use him as a substitute fielder or put him in the starting eleven. Johnson’s last appearance for USA before then came as a 40-year-old at the 2005 ICC Trophy in Ireland.

However, 46-year-old Johnson leapfrogged three other healthy players, including then uncapped 28-year-old fast bowler Durale Forrest, to appear in the starting eleven in USA’s next match against Papua New Guinea. Johnson took 2 for 23 in the seven-wicket loss after USA was sent in by PNG and bowled out for 44. Johnson then sat out USA’s final three matches of the tournament.

Six months later, USA named a squad for the 2011 ICC Americas Division One Twenty20 tournament in Florida which included Nauman Mustafa in the 14-man list. However, he was mysteriously removed from the squad just a week before the start of the tournament and replaced by Sushil Nadkarni. When asked to explain how Nadkarni was added to the squad in favor of Mustafa, Manaf Mohamed replied, “The president [Gladstone Dainty] gave me that instruction.”

USA’s first match of 2012 ICC WCL Division Four will be against Malaysia on September 3. DreamCricket.com will have live coverage from Kuala Lumpur for all of USA’s matches beginning at 10:30 a.m. local time, 10:30 p.m. EST and 7:30 p.m. PST the previous night in America.

USA Cricket: USA faces host side Malaysia on September 3 to start 2012 ICC WCL Division Four

openingbat — Wed, 08 Aug 2012 11:20:00 GMT

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By Peter Della Penna (on Twitter)

For the second World Cricket League event in a row, USA has been assigned to play the host nation in the first match of the tournament as they face off against Malaysia at Bayuemas Oval on September 3 to kick off 2012 ICC WCL Division Four according to an ICC press release. The déjà vu continues on the tournament’s second day when USA takes on Denmark, a match that will be held at Selangor Turf Club.

At 2011 ICC WCL Division Three, USA took on hosts Hong Kong and defeated them easily by seven wickets only to stumble badly on day two of tournament play against Denmark. USA dropped Denmark captain Michael Pedersen three times on his way to 78 not out in a total of 193 for 6. USA was at 84 for 2 chasing in the 16th over when a spectacular collapse resulted in the team being bowled out for 163 in 39.5 overs. Aditya Thyagarajan suffered a severely dislocated right knee in the match and hasn’t played for USA since then while rehabbing the injury but Thyagarajan was selected to return to the senior squad for next month’s tour to Malaysia.

After a day off on September 5, USA returns to action at Kinrara Oval, site of the 2008 ICC U-19 World Cup Final, when they matchup with Tanzania on September 6. A day later, they return to the same venue to face off against Nepal, a team that has become one of USA’s biggest rivals outside of the Americas over the last several years. In their most recent matchup, USA beat Nepal in a crucial showdown at 2010 ICC WCL Division Four in Italy by 55 runs with Sushil Nadkarni scoring a vital 64 not out in USA’s total of 203 for 8 before phenomenal spells by Usman Shuja (3 for 17) and Muhammad Ghous (3 for 31) sealed the win for USA.

After another rest day on September 8, USA returns to Bayuemas Oval for the final match in group play when they face Singapore. USA lost to Singapore by 99 runs the last time the two teams met, which was in 2010 at ICC WCL Division Five in Nepal. Left-arm spinner Jackie Manoj-Kumar tormented USA on the day, wiping out the middle order to finish with 4 for 23 as USA was bowled out for 146, but USA won’t have to worry about him in Malaysia as Manoj-Kumar is not in Singapore’s 14-man squad for the event.

After the round-robin stage finishes on September 9, the teams will be placed into a first place, third place and fifth place playoff on September 10. The first place playoff will take place at Kinrara Oval, the third place playoff at Selangor Turf Club and the fifth place playoff at Bayuemas Oval. The top two teams in the tournament will be promoted to 2013 ICC WCL Division Three, which takes place April 28-May 5 in Bermuda. The two promoted teams will join Bermuda, Italy, Oman and Uganda in Division Three. The bottom two finishers at 2012 ICC WCL Division Four will be relegated to ICC WCL Division Five.

USA’s squad is scheduled to depart the USA for Malaysia on August 26 and arrive on August 28 for six days of training and acclimatization before the first match against Malaysia on September 3. It is currently unknown if USA will have any warm-up matches in Malaysia prior to the first match.

DreamCricket.com will provide live coverage of all of USA’s matches at 2012 ICC WCL Division Four in Malaysia. Each match is scheduled to begin at 10:30 a.m. local time, 10:30 p.m. EST and 7:30 p.m. PST the previous day in America.

USA Cricket: 2012 ICC World Twenty20 Qualifier Report Card Part 3 - Outlook for WCL Division Four

openingbat — Tue, 03 Apr 2012 09:27:00 GMT

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By Peter Della Penna (on Twitter)

Click here for Part 1: Team Grades and Part 2: Player Grades

What the team needs heading into ICC WCL Division Four

Preparation: The following quote is taken from the report card that was written after the 2011 ICC Americas Division One Twenty20 tournament in July.

“When the team went to Dubai in 2010 for the last World Twenty20 Qualifier, they got to play two warm-up matches against the UAE before the tournament started and wound up finishing fifth after beating Scotland and losing to Ireland and Afghanistan. They’ll need something more significant in terms of preparation prior to leaving for Dubai to have any hope of finishing in the top two in next year’s qualifier. There is currently nothing scheduled for the men’s team between now and March when the Qualifier is due to be held so making plans to fill that gap in the calendar should be a high priority.”

If the USACA administration was able to arrange a four-match 50-over series in Florida for the USA U-19 team against West Indies U-19 before heading off to Ireland for last summer’s ICC U-19 World Cup Qualifier, the administration should have been able to make a few phone calls to organize some unofficial Twenty20 fixtures to be played in late December or early January in Florida against some of the West Indian domestic teams such as Jamaica, Guyana or Trinidad & Tobago for the USA men. West Indies A played a series of unofficial matches against Bangladesh A in November and something similar could have been designed for USA against one of the islands during the gap in the West Indies domestic calendar ahead of the Caribbean T20 tournament in January.

The administration failed to prepare the team for this tournament and as a result the team was prepared to fail. In the seven and a half months that followed USA’s second place finish at the ICC Americas Division One Twenty20 tournament in July, next to nothing was done. USA played three Twenty20s in Canada in August, but because USA was only confirmed to participate a week before the start of the Etihad Summer Cricket Festival, a B squad was sent to play in Toronto.

Of the players who participated for USA in the event against Canada, Afghanistan and Trinidad & Tobago, only two of them were picked in the 14-man squad to go to the UAE – Muhammad Ghous and Andy Mohammed – while Japen Patel joined as an injury replacement. For the other 12 players in the team that went to the UAE this month, the only matches they got to play together in a USA uniform between July and the first match against Uganda were three warm-ups in Sharjah a few days before the qualifier began.

Compare that to Namibia, who like USA is not one of the six ICC High Performance Program teams. Like USA, they played their ICC Regional Qualifier in July and finished second at the ICC Africa Division One Twenty20. However, they had a plan in place that resulted in an undefeated 7-0 record in Group B. When Scotland visited to play an Intercontinental Cup match and two 50-over games in September, Namibia arranged for them to stay an extra week into October so they could play five unofficial Twenty20s against each other. Scotland won four of the five, but the preparation and familiarity with their opposition certainly helped Namibia when they hammered Scotland at the qualifier.

Then, completely independent of any ICC tournament obligations whatsoever, Namibia hosted Kenya for eight unofficial Twenty20 matches in November. They won six matches and lost two, but most importantly got to try out various combinations and roles to see what worked best. Namibia also plays in South Africa’s provincial three-day and 50-over competitions, but they specifically sought out Twenty20 practice matches independent of that to get their players geared up for the qualifier and it paid off.

Conversely, USA’s administration sat on their hands. As a result, the coaching staff was trialing combinations and roles during the tournament rather than ahead of the tournament. It cost the team badly. Previous evidence shows that USA takes a long time to get into a good rhythm when they enter an ICC tournament which takes place in the northern hemisphere winter, outside of USA’s domestic club cricket season. They needed all the help they could get ahead of this tournament to get prepared. Instead, the administration thought that a three-day selection camp in January followed by a series of weekly conference calls before leaving on March 6 for the UAE would bring good results. USA’s 3-6 tournament record demonstrates what a folly that was.

Anyone looking to make excuses for USA’s performance at the qualifier by saying that it’s unfair to compare USA with the upper echelon Associate level teams is doing just that, making excuses. Entering the 2012 ICC World Twenty20 Qualifier, USA had beaten Scotland, Canada, Nepal, Italy and Hong Kong in either 50-over or 20-over matches since the start of 2010. Scotland finished fifth and Canada sixth at the qualifier. Nepal finished seventh, Italy 10th and Hong Kong 11th.

Image (right) - Aditya Mishra hits a six against Scotland in USA's seven-wicket win. If they can finish comfortably on top against Scotland, there's no reason USA can't stand toe-to-toe with any other Associate. [Courtesy: ICC/Ian Jacobs]

USA’s talent matches up well with any of those teams. Scotland played in the Intercontinental Cup final at the end of 2010. USA beat them convincingly at the World Twenty20 Qualifier in 2010 and they beat them convincingly at the World Twenty20 Qualifier in 2012. The fact is that USA’s players are talented enough and capable of competing with any team that was in the tournament, including Ireland and Afghanistan. However, that can’t be done by standing idle for seven and a half months while other countries are playing together regularly.

Selecting players for roles: One of the most amusing things to go back and read on the forums after the end of a match are comments left by fans and supporters that say something along the lines of, “Player X opens for his club/league/region team. Why is he batting at number seven for USA?” One of the only players who bats in the same role for his club/league/region as he does when he has played for the national team is Aditya Thyagarajan. Not surprisingly, Thyagarajan has had success playing in the middle order for USA because he is familiar and comfortable there due to the fact that he fills the same role for his club/region.

Every other player picked for USA opens or bats at number three for their club/league/region. Then they come to play for USA and are asked to bat at 5, 6, 7 or 8 and have no situational experience to draw upon. They are used to starting the innings and dictating the course of play. For the most part, they have no concept of how to respond when they enter at 30 for 4 or 40 for 5 when playing for the national team because they’ve never had to do it at club/league/regional level. They struggle and the team struggles as a result. More attention needs to be placed on picking players for roles. USA is guilty of this at U-19 level as well as senior level in terms of squad selection. It makes no sense picking eight opening batsmen when only two can play in that position for the national team.

Get people playing regularly on turf wickets: The vast majority of USA’s squad had limited international experience prior to this tournament. The vast majority of them also had limited experience playing on turf wickets. Two players who play on turf wickets on a weekly basis at Woodley in Los Angeles – Abhimanyu Rajp and Elmore Hutchinson – were two of USA’s most impressive players on tour despite the fact that they were making their debuts for USA. That’s no coincidence. USA’s batsmen in particular struggled and part of those struggles can be pinned on failing to adjust to turf wickets after playing virtually year round on artificial surfaces. It will continue to be this way until the administration makes infrastructure development a top priority.

Hire a full-time coach/team director: This was discussed in November, but it’s worth revisiting here. Just about every player had positive things to say about Robin Singh and his involvement with the squad. Singh was with the team during the warm-up and group phase, then flew back to India after USA’s final group match against Scotland. Everyone felt they learned something from him over the course of their time with him.

However, USACA is wasting precious funds by just throwing money at him to show up for two weeks and disappear again. USACA must bring him on board full-time and have him work with the various regions on a regular basis by developing programs geared to get everyone on the same page and he has to work with the national team inside the USA ahead of tours as well. It’s no use having him just show up at tournament time. He needs to be on site on a regular basis.

Hire a proper physio: Throwing a first aid kit bag over a USACA board member’s shoulder doesn’t count. The person USACA has been sending on every tour to be the team physio is licensed in the state of Illinois to be a Physical Therapist Assistant (PTA). He is not licensed to be a Physical Therapist (PT). According to the Illinois Physical Therapy Association, there is a very big difference between the two.

Physical Therapist

“Physical therapists must graduate from an accredited educational program with a master's or doctoral degree. After completing your education, you will be required to pass a licensure examination before you can work as a PT. Coursework includes biology, chemistry, and physics, as well as specialized courses such as biomechanics, neuroanatomy, human growth and development, manifestations of disease, examination techniques, and therapeutic procedures.”

Physical Therapist Assistant

“Physical Therapist Assistants graduate from a 2 year program, earning an associates degree from an accredited physical therapist assistant program. PTAs also must pass a licensure examination to work as a PTA. PTAs perform a number of physical therapy treatments and procedures as determined by the supervising physical therapist.”

There are plenty of 27 and 28-year-old newly licensed physical therapists fresh out of completing a master's or doctoral degree at university with the latest training methods in sports medicine who would give their right arm for an opportunity to work for a few weeks on tour for a USA national team in any sport. Many of them would probably do it pro bono as long as their expenses were taken care of. The selectors showed in January that they were keen to find some fresh blood to represent the team. With that spirit in mind, the same should be done for the next tour by bringing along a new fully licensed, freshly trained physical therapist.

A healthy Aditya Thyagarajan: If USA’s middle order man for all crises can return to full fitness after more than a year away from the national team, he would provide priceless stability to the batting. To give fans a reminder of what USA has been missing, here’s a look at some of Thyagarajan’s highlights in a red, white and blue uniform:

November 27, 2008: Enters match at 114 for 4, builds 119-run partnership with Rashard Marshall for the sixth wicket. Finishes second top score behind Marshall with 42 in total of 254 for 7 before eventual 86-run win over Bermuda.

Image (left) - Aditya Thyagarajan in action against Canada in 2008. [Courtesy: ICC]

November 29, 2008: Enters match at 59 for 4, builds 105-run partnership with Orlando Baker for the seventh wicket. Top score of 84 not out in total of 201 for 8 in USA’s eventual 81-run win over Canada.

February 10, 2010: Enters match at 11 for 5 in fourth over, builds 99-run unbeaten partnership with Orlando Baker for the seventh wicket. Top score of 72 not out in 78-run loss to Ireland at ICC World Twenty20 Qualifier.

February 23, 2010: Enters match at 55 for 5 in 23rd over, builds 118-run partnership with Carl Wright for the sixth wicket. Builds 80-run unbeaten partnership with Rashard Marshall for seventh wicket. Top score of 83 not out in USA’s 66-run win over Jersey.

February 26, 2010: With USA needing 163 to win in 50 overs, enters chase at 112 for 5 in 29th over. Builds 47-run unbeaten partnership with Sushil Nadkarni for the sixth wicket. Scores 18 not out in five-wicket win over Nepal amidst crowd rioting.

May 28, 2010: Enters match at 91 for 4, builds 213-run partnership with Orlando Baker for the fifth wicket. Top score of 159 in total of 347 for 6 in USA’s eventual 119-run win over Argentina.

June 6, 2010: With USA needing 101 to win in 20 overs, enters chase at 60 for 4 in 10th over. Builds 37-run unbeaten partnership with Carl Wright for the sixth wicket. Top score of 27 not out as USA wins ICC Americas Division One Twenty20 title over Canada by five wickets with nine balls to spare.

August 20, 2010: Enters match at 17 for 5 in fifth over, builds 84-run partnership with Lennox Cush for the sixth wicket. Builds 205-run unbeaten partnership with Rashard Marshall for the seventh wicket. Scores 102 not out in total of 306 for 6 before eventual 196-run win over Argentina.

Call him the Iceman, the Insurance Policy, the Stick of Glue… call him whatever you want, Thyagarajan was USA’s middle order. USA hasn’t been the same since he went down with a dislocated right knee against Denmark in Hong Kong more than a year ago at ICC WCL Division Three. He’s progressed enough in rehab to be playing club cricket for Hollywood CC in the SCCA, but he needs to get 100% fit and back into a USA uniform for ICC WCL Division Four. USA is a different team with him in the lineup and the younger players can learn a huge amount by observing him and the way he approaches each innings.

The return of Steve Massiah: Massiah has never been a good performer in Twenty20 cricket so it’s doubtful he would have caused a change in fortunes for USA had he been with the squad in the UAE. However, he still offers value to USA in the 50-over format. Now that his legal matter has been resolved, it opens the door for him to come back and bolster USA’s middle order for WCL Division Four.

With Massiah and Thyagarajan in the lineup, USA should feel more confident about its chances of progressing from Division Four - where they'll be up against Denmark, Malaysia, Nepal, Singapore and Tanzania - back into Division Three. The four teams in Division Three awaiting the two sides to get promoted from Division Four are Bermuda, Italy, Oman and Uganda. On paper, Division Four is going to be more difficult than Division Three. USA will need all hands on deck to progress out of Division Four and Massiah will be one of the players who has to step up.

Finding a wicketkeeper: Since 2010, USA has used Carl Wright, Orlando Baker, Ashhar Mehdi, Steven Taylor, Ritesh Kadu, Akeem Dodson and Nauman Mustafa in the specialist position. Taylor was forced into the role on this tour when it wasn’t the original plan, but he is not a long term solution and should only be used to keep wicket in emergency situations. Otherwise, Taylor should be playing as a specialist batsman.

USA’s handling of Mustafa on this tour was reminiscent of their handling of Durale Forrest in Hong Kong. The coaching staff killed Mustafa’s confidence by dropping him and handing the gloves over to Taylor rather than show faith in Mustafa after a rough first game behind the stumps against Uganda. Forrest didn’t even get the benefit of a game before his confidence was shattered. He had to watch as a 46-year-old assistant coach was added to the roster and walked right into the starting XI before he could even make his debut.

USACA has also done wonders to put a major dent in Akeem Dodson’s development. The 24-year-old won the Best Wicketkeeper Award at the ICC Americas tournament in July, but USACA sent invitations out to a half-dozen other wicketkeepers for January’s selection camp. Mustafa succeeded in knocking the incumbent out, but couldn’t cement his position once on tour and that caused a major headache for the squad during and after the tournament. It's highly likely that USA will be going back to the drawing board once again for a different wicketkeeper when WCL Division Four comes around after Mustafa's underwhelming performance in the UAE.

The bottom line is someone needs to step up to fill the role ahead of WCL Division Four. The wicketkeeper position figures to be one of at least two roster spots in the team up for grabs heading into the senior team’s next international commitment. Adil Bhatti might be able to fight off a few challengers to remain in the squad, but if Timroy Allen or Rashard Marshall show interest in recommitting themselves to the national team, they would be too difficult to pass up. Here’s a projected lineup for USA at Division Four with two roster spots left unnamed.

1. Steven Taylor
2. Aditya Mishra (vice-captain)
3. Sushil Nadkarni (captain)
4. Steve Massiah
5. Aditya Thyagarajan
6. Orlando Baker
7. Wicketkeeper - Up for grabs
8. Elmore Hutchinson
9. Usman Shuja
10. Abhimanyu Rajp
11. Muhammad Ghous

12th man: Ryan Corns
13th man: Asif Khan
14th man: Up for grabs

[Views expressed in this article are those of the author who was present at all of the team's matches. If you have differing views or opinions, we respect those views and urge you to provide your feedback - both positive and negative - in the comments section.]

USA Cricket: 2012 ICC World Twenty20 Qualifier Report Card Part 1 - Team Grades

openingbat — Wed, 28 Mar 2012 16:22:00 GMT

Now, you can get all the USA Cricket updates via Facebook. Also follow us on Twitter via @dreamcricket

By Peter Della Penna (on Twitter)

Team Grades

Batting – F: The team had just three half-centuries but managed to rack up 12 ducks, the most for any team in the tournament. If you think you’ve read that before somewhere, it’s because you have: USA’s report card for ICC World Cricket League Division Three in Hong Kong. Nine of the 12 donuts came from recognized batsmen. USA’s highest batting average at the tournament was from a bowler, Asif Khan with 42.00. There were only four half-century partnerships in the tournament, three of which involved Aditya Mishra, two with Orlando Baker, two with Steven Taylor and one with Sushil Nadkarni. When the top order failed, there was next to no support down the order. USA only had four scores of 30+ from number four or lower while their opponents had seven.

With the exception of Steven Taylor, the youth brigade showed they were out of their depth and need to work overtime just to achieve a decent standard. As a consequence of that, the senior players were always under immense pressure to perform and that burden weighed them down.

Image (right) - Aditya Mishra and Steven Taylor run between the wickets during their 78-run opening stand vs. Scotland, USA's highest partnership of the tournament. [Courtesy: ICC/Ian Jacobs]

USA ended the group stage with just three players who had 100 runs or more and finished the tournament with no one crossing 200 on aggregate. Only four other teams failed to have someone score 200+ runs in the tournament: Italy, Oman, Papua New Guinea and Uganda. USA managed to lose to two of those teams.

The running between the wickets was average, mainly due to the lack of familiarity the players had with one another. Like so many other things, if the squad had been established in autumn and given an opportunity to play some games together before going off to the UAE, the chemistry in this regard would have been better. USA’s seven runouts were tied for the third most in the tournament with Kenya and Bermuda, trailing only Nepal with nine and Uganda with 10. None of those teams finished in the top three of their respective groups. Namibia and Scotland had the fewest runouts committed with three and they finished first and third in Group B respectively.

USA's most glaring problems on the batting side came from the number three and seven batting positions. USA's number three position averaged 10.33 during the tournament, the worst out of any position in the top six. That was mainly boosted by Sushil Nadkarni's 48 against Bermuda in the 11th place semifinal. In seven Group B matches, USA's number three produced scores of 7, 1, 0, 6, 8, 3 and 19 for an average of 6.29. Six different players were given opportunities in the position during the tournament, but with the exception of Nadkarni against Bermuda, none of them had success.

Similiarly, the number seven position is crucial in Twenty20 cricket for finishing the innings with a flourish or being a stabilizer when things have gone haywire but neither happened in the UAE. USA's number seven position averaged 8.67 in the tournament with scores of 21, 5, 4, 2, 7*, 4, 9* and 0. It was USA's second worst average at any position in the tournament behind number eight's average contribution of 7.71. Four different players were tried at number seven, but hardly any success was achieved.

Bowling – C+: Of the three disciplines, this is the one USA can usually depend on to keep them in matches and give them the best chance of winning. But collectively on this tour, they turned in an average performance. USA took 34 wickets in seven group games, tied for 11th along with Oman and Papua New Guinea, though they were hurt badly by the fielders behind them. The only bowling attacks that were less incisive during the group stage were Hong Kong, Bermuda and Denmark. Many players were able to get good 30s and 40s against USA, but only four half-centuries were scored against USA.

USA was fairly good at getting early breakthroughs. The opening partnerships for the opposition in each match went for 1, 6, 49, 4, 0, 55, 0, 23 and 10. However, when a partnership got going in the middle overs they found it hard to not only get a wicket but struggled to contain teams. The opposition was able to put together seven half-century partnerships. Five of those came in stands for the third (56 vs. Namibia, 82 vs. Bermuda, 64 vs. Hong Kong) or fourth wicket (86 vs. Ireland, 54 vs. Scotland) during middle over periods. Muhammad Ghous had USA’s best economy rate at 6.00 runs per over, meaning no one on USA could hold the opposition to less than a run a ball.

Fielding – D: As usual, fielding held USA back. USA committed no less than 16 drops and missed two clear runout chances. Each missed chance cost them an average of 18.6 runs. So the opposition wound up gaining an extra 37.2 runs per game off of missed chances by USA. Conversely, USA’s opponents gave them 12 let offs that cost an average of 17.0 runs. So USA was getting an extra 22.6 runs per game off each miss. When you put that against the chances they gave, USA had a net of -14.6 runs per game they conceded to the opposition just based on missed chances. That does not include misfields along the ground by fielders and byes conceded by the wicketkeepers. The wicketkeeping role was a problem all tour after the first choice keeper Nauman Mustafa was yanked following a costly game behind the stumps on the first day against Uganda.

It was that Uganda match in which fielding came back to haunt USA most. Ben Musoke was dropped on 8 with the score at 34 for 3 in 9.1 overs and made 17. Davis Arinaitwe was dropped on 1 with the score at 47 for 4 in 10.5 overs and made 27 not out to become Man of the Match as Uganda reached the target of 124 to win by four wickets with four balls to spare. Arinaitwe only made 37 runs in the group stage and just 67 in the entire tournament, but 26 of them came after he was dropped against the USA.

USA pulled off three runouts in the field in their first two games, but only one in their last seven, a clear indication that they were becoming slower and slower to react off the ball the longer the tournament wore on. Their four runouts in the field tied with Kenya for 13th in the tournament. Oman and Ireland had three, but Ireland’s catching was sharp and their bowlers took the most wickets in group play with 56 so they were always applying a tremendous amount of pressure in the field. Namibia, who finished Group B undefeated, had the most runouts in the field with 12, four more than the next best team, Canada, who also made the knockout stage.

The NFL keeps track of turnover ratio as a good indicator of a team’s success due to not making mistakes on offense versus forcing mistakes on defense. If one were to look at runout ratio in a similar way as a stat in this tournament, USA’s runout ratio of -3 (seven runouts while batting, only four in the field) was tied with Kenya for 14th in the tournament. Only Uganda was worse with -4. Five teams were in positive territory: Namibia (+9), Scotland (+4), PNG (+3), Canada (+2), Netherlands (+1). The only one not to make the knockout stage from that group was PNG, who finished eighth.

Fitness – D: A factor in the team’s poor fielding standards was their fitness. USACA Cricket Committee chairman Ahmed Jeddy said before the tour that, “We are not going to be outrun by every Tom, *** and Harry.” Unfortunately, that wasn’t the case.

As noted in the last section, USA had three runouts in the field in the first two games, but pulled off just one in the last seven. Ten of USA’s 18 missed chances in the field happened in their final three matches against Scotland, Bermuda and Hong Kong. They were usually on their heels and slow to react to the ball off the bat. Several catches went down on the boundary because of poor reads, but others were dropped from lethargic efforts in getting to the ball.

USA captain Nadkarni commented after the loss to Hong Kong that his strategy for giving the team a chance to win on that day was to win the toss and bat so that they wouldn’t have to spend 20 overs getting tired in the field before chasing a target. They lost the toss and had to field first, dropping four chances as Hong Kong posted 177 for 4. USA was then smoked by the pace of Aizaz Khan, all out for 100.

It was a long tour for USA, but all teams at the tournament were in the same boat in regards to the number of matches that had to be played. Several traveling party members talked up the team’s youth ahead of the tour and how much energy it would bring. In several places it was spoken or reported that USA’s average age was 27. The fact is that USA’s average age entering the first day of the tournament was 28.52. They were the fourth oldest team in the tournament and it showed.

However, this is somewhat contradicted by the performance of Usman Shuja, who somehow managed to gain steam and bowl better as the tournament wore on. At the age of 33, Shuja was the third oldest player on the team but routinely looked like he had more energy than most of the other younger players out on the field.

Image (left) - Usman Shuja, seen bowling here against Scotland, is consistently one of USA's fittest players on tour. [Courtesy: ICC/Ian Jacobs]

The biggest reality check for where USA needs to be on the fitness side of things comes from watching tournament champion Ireland. For anyone who saw Ireland on the final day, they would know that it is possible to stay full of energy through a grueling tournament. They had been put through more punishment than any other team at the qualifier by playing 11 matches in 12 days, including two on the last day against Namibia and Afghanistan.

However, William Porterfield was constantly flying all over the place and he was well supported by everyone else in the field. Ireland has professionalism on their side though and for USA to achieve the same standards in all aspects of the game they must find a way to do the same or else another 12th place finish is about what USA can expect the next time this qualifier happens.

Coming up in Part II - Individual Grades

USA Cricket: Aizaz blazes through USA order in 77-run loss to Hong Kong at 2012 ICC World Twenty20 Qualifier

openingbat — Fri, 23 Mar 2012 18:44:00 GMT

Now, you can get all the USA Cricket updates via Facebook. Also follow us on Twitter via @dreamcricket

By Peter Della Penna in Dubai (on Twitter)

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Hong Kong fast bowler Aizaz Khan nipped USA’s chase in the bud with a fiery spell of fast bowling to take 5 for 25 as Hong Kong defeated USA by 77 runs in the 11th place match at the 2012 ICC World Twenty20 Qualifier in the UAE. Aizaz was named Man of the Match after helping his side bowl out USA for 100, completing just the third five-wicket haul of the tournament. USA finishes the tournament in 12th place with three wins in nine games while Hong Kong ends it in 11th place with four wins from nine matches.

“Coming into this game, I realized the toss would be a real important factor,” said USA captain Sushil Nadkarni after the loss. “I lost the toss today… and we were looking to bat first. Unfortunately we were put into the field. I thought that that played into our weakness for this game a little bit because the guys were really feeling tired right now and we had to get into the field and field 20 overs before coming to chase a big total. We really wanted to win but the best team came out on top today.”

Hong Kong won the toss and batted first. USA made one change to the starting XI from the previous match against Bermuda. Japen Patel returned to the lineup in favor of Nauman Mustafa, which meant Steven Taylor kept wicket for the sixth time in the tournament.

Irfan Ahmed and Waqas Barkat opened the batting for Hong Kong, putting on just 10 for the first wicket before Barkat was bowled by Muhammad Ghous for 8. Barkat was trying to hit Ghous for his third consecutive boundary by shuffling across his stumps to play a sweep but was bowled behind his legs.

Ahmed was joined by Hong Kong captain Jamie Atkinson and the pair put on 46 for the second wicket. Ahmed was dropped on 18 by Patel at long on off the bowling of Ryan Corns on the first ball of the seventh over, but Corns got Ahmed four balls later for 23 when he beat the batsman in flight to have him stumped.

Meanwhile, Atkinson was enjoying his time at the opposite end as USA’s spinners watched him sweep full deliveries off his pads all day long without much fuss. Against pace, Atkinson received a steady diet of short-pitched bowling that he also cross-batted to the leg side.

Atkinson received good support from Nizakat Khan and the two added 64 for the third wicket. Nizakat should have been caught for 9 by Nadkarni at point in the 12th over, but survived to add another 23 runs. Atkinson brought up his 50 in the 13th over, by which point he had hit 10 boundaries among his 30 deliveries faced. Only two of the 10 went through the off side, with both of those going behind point.

Nizakat was finally caught on the cover boundary for 32 off the first ball of the 15th over to make it 120 for 3. Roy Lamsam came in and took only singles to try to give Atkinson as much strike as possible. The captain hit two more boundaries, both through the leg side, before he was finally bowled by Orlando Baker to give him his second wicket and send Atkinson on his way for 63 to make it 135 for 4 on the first ball of the 17th. Atkinson now leads the tournament in runs with 345, including four half-centuries.

With Atkinson gone it appeared USA might be able to hold Hong Kong under 160, but the fielding let them down yet again when the new man Babar Hayat was dropped on 9 on a straightforward skied chance to Adil Bhatti on the cover boundary off the bowling of Usman Shuja. Hayat capitalized to help Hong Kong score 30 off the final 11 deliveries, with 23 of those runs coming off his own bat including two fours and two sixes as Hong Kong finished on 177 for 4. Baker finished with 2 for 24 while Ghous took 1 for 12 in two to finish tied for the team lead in wickets with Abhimanyu Rajp. Both players ended with 10 wickets although Ghous played one more match than Rajp.

Taylor provided fireworks at the start of USA’s innings, tearing medium pacer Max Tucker apart for four boundaries in the first over. Aditya Mishra opened with him but succumbed to the second ball bowled by Aizaz, a bouncer top-edged to the wicketkeeper Barkat, to make it 17 for 1 in the second over. Taylor tried to take back control for USA in the third, launching Nizakat’s second ball over long on for a massive six. Once a replacement ball was brought out, Nizakat changed angles to come around the wicket and dismissed Taylor with his very next delivery, getting the left-hander to come prodding forward and a simple catch was taken behind the stumps by Barkat to dismiss Taylor for 26 in 12 balls making it 28 for 2.

Once Taylor was gone, Aizaz set about ripping up the stumps from the opposite end. Nadkarni tried to flick him through midwicket and was bowled for 1. Three balls later, Patel went for a heave and was cleaned up for 4 to finish the fourth over at 35 for 4.

Image (right) - ICC Match Referee David Jukes presents Aizaz Khan with his Man of the Match award. [Courtesy: Peter Della Penna/DreamCricket]

Two overs later, Baker played across the line and was bowled by Aizaz for 9 to make it 42 for 5. Nizakat took his second in the seventh, trapping Bhatti in front for a second-ball duck to make it 43 for 6. Aizaz came back to finish his opening spell in the eighth and completed his five-for with a picture perfect yorker to send Elmore Hutchinson back to the pavilion without scoring and USA was 45 for 7.

“I think it goes back to just having proper programs,” said Nadkarni. “There are lots of ways to prepare for fast bowling. You can use bowling machines to prepare for that. You can actually get into the nets and have guys bowling from 18 yards instead of 22 yards. There are different ways to prepare for fast bowling but I don’t think we have programs in place, neither do we have turf wickets, the kind of wickets we’re playing over here, all across the US. So the guys, it’s a new experience playing really quick bowling backed up by really good fielding. So overall I’m not too disappointed.”

Corns got a genuine opportunity to spend some time in the middle for the first time since the opening match against Uganda but failed to capitalize. He entered to start the fifth over at the fall of the fourth wicket, but got into a dreadful mixup with Shuja and wound up being run out for 9. Corns attempted to take a leg bye off the bowling of Ahmed and both batsmen wound up halfway down the track before freezing. Ahmed fielded off his own bowling and tossed the ball underhanded into the stumps at the striker’s end to get rid of Corns for 9 and it was 58 for 8 in the 10th.

USA’s best two partnerships of the match were then produced for the ninth and 10th wickets. Shuja and Rajp put on 20 before Shuja was caught slogging leg-spinner Kai Ming Li to deep midwicket for 14. Rajp and Ghous put on 22 before Nizakat had Rajp stumped for 19, USA’s second best score of the innings as USA was bundled out for 100 in 16.2 overs. While Aizaz stole the show with the ball, Nizakat also ended with solid figures of 3 for 11 in 3.2 overs.

USA’s next scheduled tournament action is ICC World Cricket League Division Four, which was originally due to be held in Florida this May but has now been pushed back to sometime later in the year at a site to be determined. Nadkarni says he hopes the players will have gained some valuable experience from their time in the UAE that they can put to good use at Division Four.

“We feel like we have a bunch of guys in this team that are young, that have gained this experience, and having Robin Singh working with us was invaluable,” said Nadkarni. “The stuff he taught us or wanted us to execute on the ground, that’s something all of us really didn’t know how to play Twenty20 cricket and the things he taught us have helped us kind of understand how the game is progressing and where we need to execute what strategies. All these things, it’s a great thing for the future because now we take the same team and we build it for Division Four.”

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USA Cricket: Top order assault leads USA to 34-run win over Bermuda at 2012 ICC World Twenty20 Qualifier

openingbat — Thu, 22 Mar 2012 19:40:00 GMT

Now, you can get all the USA Cricket updates via Facebook. Also follow us on Twitter via @dreamcricket

By Peter Della Penna in Sharjah (on Twitter)

Scorecard powered by the New Inning Foundation I Match Commentary

USA’s top four contributed 139 of the team’s 193 runs to bat Bermuda out of the game in a 34-run win on Thursday at the 2012 ICC World Twenty20 Qualifier in the UAE. USA captain Sushil Nadkarni was named Man of the Match after top scoring at number three with 48 off 30 balls including two fours and four sixes. USA now plays Hong Kong in the 11th place playoff match on Friday after Hong Kong defeated Uganda by five wickets. Bermuda and Uganda will meet in the 13th place playoff on Friday.

“Today we wanted to come in and bat the opposition out of the game,” said Nadkarni after the win. “Yesterday we were talking as a team and we wanted in the next two games to do two things. One is try to score 200 runs or get the opposition out under 100 runs. We challenged the team to see if we could do it and luckily the wicket today was a fantastic batting wicket.”

USA won the toss and elected to bat first with Nadkarni and Adil Bhatti returning to the starting XI in place of Japen Patel and Asif Khan. On a pristine batting track in Sharjah, USA put their foot on the accelerator from the first over and never let up.

Rather than pencil himself in as an opener once again after returning to the lineup following a match off, Nadkarni chose to leave USA’s successful opening partnership from the Scotland match of Steven Taylor and Aditya Mishra match intact. Taylor hit four sixes in five deliveries between the second and third overs bowled by off-spinners Curt Stovell and Rodney Trott and at the end of three overs USA had 36 on the board. Taylor scored 38 out of a 49-run partnership with Mishra before slicing an edge against off-spinner Joshua Gilbert to Stovell at short third man to end the fifth over.

Nadkarni came in and took over the big-hitting reins from Taylor, giving no respite to Bermuda when he carted Gilbert for his first six in the seventh over. Mishra got out in the eighth for 15, chipping a catch to Bermuda captain David Hemp at midwicket off the bowling of another off-spinner, Sam Robinson, to make it 67 for 2.

Image (right) - USA captain Sushil Nadkarni receives his Man of the Match award from ICC match referee Adrian Griffith. [Courtesy: Peter Della Penna/DreamCricket]

Orlando Baker came to the crease with Nadkarni and they continued to plunder Bermuda’s spinners in a 62-run stand. When medium pace was introduced in the 11th over, USA continued to show no mercy and two overs later Nadkarni blasted Janeiro Tucker for back-to-back sixes in a 17-run over. Nadkarni top-edged the first ball he faced from medium-pacer Kamau Leverock but the ball sailed over the wicketkeeper for Nadkarni’s fourth six. The teenager got revenge two balls later when Nadkarni chopped onto his stumps to make it 128 for 3 in the 14th.

Adil Bhatti scored 14 off nine balls before he was caught at deep midwicket to give Trott his only scalp, making it 153 for 4 in the 17th. Baker got out for 39 two overs later when he skied Robinson to long on, turning the score to 175 for 5 with eight balls remaining.

Elmore Hutchinson and Nauman Mustafa struck three sixes between them in their brief time in the middle to boost USA to 193 for 5. Robinson finished with 2 for 41 to lead Bermuda in the wickets column, but everyone in the attack was hit hard and no one conceded less than eight runs per over.

Bermuda got off to a steady start with 42 runs in the first six overs but lost both openers along the way. Stovell and Fiqre Crockwell were dismissed by Muhammad Ghous and Abhimanyu Rajp for 4 and 23 respectively. Instead of the chase slowing down with the fall of two early wickets, it gained momentum with Hemp and Lionel Cann at the crease.

Cann was dropped in the fifth over on 5 at mid off by Baker and the batsman didn’t let USA forget it for the rest of the innings. He opened up a 12-run 10th over by slogging Rajp over long on, then started a 19-run 11th by launching Hutchinson down the ground and over the ropes on back-to-back deliveries to take Bermuda to 93 for 1. Hemp joined the fun in the 13th, hitting Mishra’s off-spin over extra cover and long off for six on consecutive balls during a 16-run over to make it 117 for 2. All of a sudden, 77 in seven overs looked very gettable on a flat deck with two men set.

“Frankly speaking I was a little concerned at that point because I thought the game was slipping away from us,” said Nadkarni. “The guys could do much better in the field really. I thought when we came out to defend a 190-total, it almost seemed like the guys had won the game in their heads in the first few overs. We started making silly mistakes, caught behinds and dropping easy catches and that allowed them to settle in and like I said the wicket was a good batting wicket.”

Nadkarni tossed the ball to Rajp again in the 14th and the off-spinner came through with his team-leading 10th wicket at the tournament to end the partnership at 82. Hemp got a knee-high full toss outside off that he tried to muscle over Taylor at long off but he didn’t middle the ball and Taylor took a safe catch to get rid of Hemp for 27, making the score 124 for 3 after 14.

Cann struggled to find support after Hemp got out and wickets continued to fall regularly. Tucker lasted seven balls for his 5 before he was bowled by Ryan Corns. Stephen Outerbridge was gone for 1, done in by a slower ball from Usman Shuja, to make it 133 for 5 one ball into the 17th. Trott ended the 18th by slogging Ghous to Mishra at cow corner to depart for 6 and with two overs to go, Bermuda needed 52 to win.

Leverock came in and hit Shuja’s first ball in the 19th for six, but a dot ball on the final delivery of the over ensured the match belonged to USA. Leverock was eventually caught for 7 at deep midwicket by Rajp off Hutchinson two balls into the final over before Cann was caught for 73 at long on by Taylor on the last ball of the innings as Bermuda finished at 159 for 8.

Live coverage of USA’s 11th place match against Hong Kong from the ICC Global Cricket Academy in Dubai will begin Friday at 5:45 a.m. EST. DreamCricket.com’s tournament coverage is made possible in part by the New Inning Foundation.

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USA Cricket: Khan puts positive spin on topsy-turvy journey to get back into the USA squad

openingbat — Thu, 08 Mar 2012 17:56:00 GMT

Now, you can get all the USA Cricket updates via Facebook. Also follow us on Twitter via @dreamcricket

By Peter Della Penna (on Twitter)

January 26, 2011. USA vs. Oman in Hong Kong. It was a day when USA pulled off a remarkable triumph, recovering from 20 for 7 to win by two wickets. Unfortunately, that memory quietly faded away in the minds of most people who follow US cricket because it was bookended by two games with varying degrees of humiliation. USA was bowled out by Papua New Guinea for 44 on January 25 and a January 28 loss to Italy sealed USA’s relegation back to Division Four of the ICC’s World Cricket League.

For a time, it appeared that one of the heroes of that match against Oman would be discarded forever just like the memory of that game. Despite taking 3 for 11 and scoring 31 not out as part of a 71-run unbroken ninth wicket stand against Oman, in addition to being one of USA’s most consistent performers throughout the Hong Kong tour, Khan was surprisingly dropped for the 2011 ICC Americas Division One Twenty20 tournament in July. Rather than pout about it, Khan said it only made him work overtime to force his way back into the USA team for the 2012 ICC World Twenty20 Qualifier in the UAE.

“At that moment to me I thought that it was a harsh call, but I think everything happens for a reason,” said Khan in an interview with DreamCricket. “When I got dropped, I got more determined. I started working extra hard. I thought that I’m going to come back. I was working hard on my fitness.”

Image (right) - Asif Khan in action at 2011 ICC WCL Division Three in Hong Kong. [Courtesy: Peter Della Penna/DreamCricket]

“When I got selected for Hong Kong, I wasn’t in the shape I should have been or the fitness level that I ideally should have been. It kind of worked in my favor being dropped because I had to reflect. I thought I’m not where I’m supposed to be and I need to be way better than that.”

Khan is hoping to prove he’s better than what he showed in Hong Kong, which wasn’t even bad to begin with. The 33-year-old left-arm spinner grew up in Karachi, Pakistan before his family moved to Islamabad when he was a teenager. After working his way through the local cricket scene, he made his first-class cricket debut as a 17-year-old in 1996 for the Islamabad Cricket Association against a Lahore team that included Mushtaq Ahmed, Ata-ur-Rehman, and Mohammad Asif.

Khan also captained the Islamabad U-19 team in the domestic U-19 tournament to a Grade II four-day tournament final victory over a Gujranwala U-19 side which contained Abdur Rehman and had Shoaib Malik as captain. After playing six first-class games before the age of 19 for Islamabad, cricket clashed with the wishes of Khan’s parents for him to finish his university studies.

“My mother didn’t want me to play cricket at all,” said Khan. “She wanted me to finish my studies and concentrate on my studies. My father used to help me out a little bit and support me but I never had very strong support from my parents. They always stressed the importance of education and educating myself. It was to a point where I had to choose one or else you’re on your own.”

Khan put his cricket career on hold to attend college in Islamabad and eventually he moved to the USA in August of 2001 to take up a scholarship offer at Winona State University to pursue coursework in computer science. “It was a whole new experience. I didn’t imagine it was going to be like this. It’s a totally different culture, different people. I took at least two years to get adjusted. America was not a place where you could ever imagine to play cricket. I didn’t have any idea cricket is played here until 2004 when I came across a couple of guys playing in a tennis court.”

By this point in time, Khan had transferred from Winona State to University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee where he also switched majors to focus on health sciences. After his fateful tennis court meeting with members of the Milwaukee Cricket Club, Khan started playing with their team in the Midwest Cricket Conference. Khan graduated from UWM in 2006 with a Bachelor of Science degree in radiology technology and in 2007, he became a US citizen. In 2008 he was picked to play for the Central East Region team for the first time. After a string of miserly performances at national tournaments for the Central East, Khan was picked to play for USA to go to Hong Kong in 2011.

Khan’s early personal experiences on the trip might have been a harbinger of things to come for the rest of the team. The team flew Cathay Pacific from JFK to Hong Kong. When the team landed, Khan discovered that the airline had lost all of his luggage, including all of his cricket kit.

“At that time our manager was Imran and Imran helped me buying stuff,” said Khan. “I didn’t have my spikes. I lost my bat. I had to have spikes to bowl. He helped me a lot with buying stuff. Aditya [Thyagarajan] gave me his pads. I was batting with Sushil’s [Nadkarni] bat.”

In the team’s first warm-up match on tour, Khan says he was a bit nervous and it showed in his performance. For a moment he started to doubt himself, but says that the senior players did a lot to keep his confidence intact with their support.

“It took me some time to adjust,” said Khan. “I gave up like 40 runs in six overs without any wicket. I didn’t bowl very well. That was not the kind of start I was looking for. But Steve [Massiah], Sushil and Aditya, especially Aditya and Sushil, they were really pushing me and talking to me throughout the tour. They supported me a lot. After the first game, Steve said, ‘Don’t worry, you’ll be fine.’ I was worried I wouldn’t play the first game, but eventually I was told I was in the XI.”

In USA’s first match against Hong Kong, Khan bowled respectably on a Kowloon Cricket Club ground with short boundaries and little margin for error for a spinner. He returned figures of 10-0-41-0 as USA won by seven wickets and a day later took 2 for 31 in a gut-wrenching 30-run loss to Denmark.

After USA’s annihilation at the hands of PNG, Khan delivered in the clutch for USA against Oman. The match looked like it would be a cakewalk after Khan took three wickets to help bowl Oman out for 122, but two hours later, the team was in dire straits at 8 for 52 when he joined Usman Shuja at the crease.

“The good thing was that I had a little knock against Denmark and that boosted my confidence batting wise,” said Khan, who finished 17 not out in the loss to Denmark. “I knew that if I stayed there, the good thing was we were not chasing a big total and we had plenty of overs to spare.”

“My initial conversation when I came to the crease, I told Usman, ‘Don’t think that I’m gonna get out. I’m not gonna get out for sure. Don’t worry about that. Just wipe that thing out of your mind. Just watch your wicket, I’m gonna watch my wicket. Just let me settle down a few overs. Let me see the ball well. Once I start seeing the ball well, don’t worry. We’ll rotate the strike. There is nothing wrong with playing a few overs of dot balls just to get ourselves in.’ Once we did that, we’ll win. At that moment, I never thought of losing the game.”

Khan eventually hit the winning runs over mid-on but the excitement faded two days later with the loss to Italy. Then came the news five months later that he’d been dropped from the squad.

With a new USACA Cricket Committee put in place toward the end of 2011, Khan received an invite to come to a USACA selection camp in January in Florida where he had to take on two incumbent left-arm orthodox spinners from the USA squad in July, Bhim George and Samarth Shah. However, Khan impressed the selectors enough to be chosen ahead of George and Shah to be what new USA captain Sushil Nadkarni says is the team’s “front line spin option” in the UAE.

Image (left) - Khan hit the winning shot here against Oman in January 2011, but was left out of USA's next tournament squad in July. [Courtesy: Peter Della Penna/DreamCricket]

“When Asif came into the selection games, he hadn’t played much cricket because of where he was coming from [in Wisconsin],” said Nadkarni. “After he bowled one over, he was warmed up and basically all through the selection games from then on looked like somebody who was distinguishing himself amongst all the spinners based on his experience and his control and his variations.”

“When he came into Hong Kong, I feel like he was one of the finds of the tournament and pretty much was one of the few players that had a really good tournament. I go back to the game which we won against Oman where Asif had three wickets in that game and then put on a partnership with Usman Shuja to win the game for USA from 20 for 7 to chasing 110 plus. He has played first class cricket in Pakistan. He definitely brings to us a wealth of experience. He is considered one of the senior members of this team. So absolutely I would expect that other younger folks and younger spinners on the team talk to Asif and try to get some good tips on the approach and the mental preparation for the big games.”

Khan works two separate jobs from Monday through Friday as an MRI technician for different medical groups in Milwaukee. The first goes from 8 a.m. until 4:30 p.m. before he heads off to the second job from 5 until 8 p.m. He gets home from work at 8:30, eats dinner and spends a little bit of time with his wife Ghazal and two kids, a 26-month-old son named Azaan and a 13-month-old daughter named Emaan. He then heads off to the gym at 10 p.m. to work on his fitness before coming home around midnight.

On some Saturdays, Khan also has to work from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., but afterwards he drives two hours to Chicago, taking his family with him, for indoor practice sessions organized and paid for by the Midwest Cricket Conference. He then drives two hours back to Chicago the same night before driving back to Chicago again with his family on Sundays for another practice session.

Even though there are few opportunities to devote to training outside of work and family, Khan says he’s tried to make the most of them ahead of this tour. As a result, he says he’s lost 10 to 12 pounds since the USACA camp in January and feels fitter than he has at any point in time since coming to America. He believes the commitment to fitness is being taken seriously by everyone in the team ahead of this tournament and that the results on the field will show it.

“We have quite a few fresh legs in the team and I think the senior players are fitter and stronger than ever,” said Khan. “I believe the way the team is looking right now, I think we have a very good chance of qualifying. I have no doubt in my mind that we are capable of qualifying. We just need to play together and play as a team.”

If the USA qualifies for the 2012 ICC World Twenty20 in Sri Lanka, Khan’s role in achieving that will be vital. After the heartbreak of Hong Kong, he hopes that USA will bounce back and prove to everyone that the team’s last place finish at ICC WCL Division Three was just an aberration and not the start of a trend.

“Our credibility is on the line because we didn’t do well in Hong Kong,” said Khan. “Nobody in this tournament is taking us seriously. I think everybody has kind of wrote us out already. We are determined to prove ourselves and we want to show the rest of the world that yes we belong at this top level and that we are capable of performing.”

USA Cricket: 84-run loss to Denmark finishes off forgettable tournament for USA

openingbat — Sat, 29 Jan 2011 14:45:00 GMT

Now, you can get all the USA Cricket updates via Facebook. Also follow us on Twitter via @dreamcricket

By Peter Della Penna in Hong Kong

Match Scorecard | Live Updates

Denmark wicketkeeper-batsman Freddie Klokker (Right) scored 101 not out to lead his side past USA by 84 runs in the 5th Place Playoff match at Mission Road on Saturday at ICC WCL Division Three in Hong Kong. Both USA and Denmark finished the tournament 2-4 with Denmark’s pair of victories coming against the United States.

“There are no real words to describe how we’re feeling right now,” said USA Team Manager Imran Khan. “It’s extremely disappointing and even then those words don’t really do justice to the disappointment that’s the overall feeling and mood in the camp. Just for some reason, there are factors that cannot be explained in words. We just couldn’t perform. The energy wasn’t there.”

Denmark won the toss and elected to bat first on a sunny but cool morning. Kevin Darlington and Usman Shuja were left out of USA’s lineup from the day before in favor of Ritesh Kadu and Muhammad Ghous. At the end of the pregame huddle, the team shouted their customary, “1-2-3-USA!” It was just about the only noise USA made on the day as the team played without any energy, looking generally lethargic throughout their time in the field. USA had no less than 30 runs given away on misfields and missed chances.

The tone of the day was set in the second over when Denmark opener Yasir Iqbal went for a back foot drive off Durale Forrest and sent a thick edge in the air to Orlando Baker’s left at point. Baker swiveled to the right and pulled his left hand back to let the ball go flying by to the boundary.

Three overs later, Klokker was on 7 with the score on 18 when he went for a sweep off Lennox Cush, who opened the bowling with Forrest, and missed with the ball popping off his pad in the air to Kadu’s right. Kadu shuffled over to catch the ball and in the process of missing the shot, Klokker briefly fell out of his crease. Kadu caught the ball then underhanded it toward the stumps from two yards away, but missed.

Iqbal gave an edge behind to Kadu in the next over off Forrest to make the score 20 for 1, but from there Carsten Pedersen joined Klokker and the pair cruised along to pile on the runs. At no time in their 136-run partnership were they put under any sort of pressure, mainly due to the shocking amount of misfields and generally lazy effort by the fielders in going after the ball.

The fielding performance was best summed up by a sequence that took place with Ghous bowling in the 27th over which started with the score on 104 for 1. On the fifth ball, Pedersen clipped a full delivery toward Steve Massiah at midwicket, who made a half-hearted attempt at the ball by reaching down with one hand when he could have slid to stop it for no run, as the batsmen were completing a second, Carl Wright ran in from the midwicket boundary and fielded the ball, throwing it past the backup man to allow another two runs on overthrows. What should have been a dot ball became four runs.

“The fact that we lost yesterday, couldn’t maintain Division Three status, I think really destroyed the entire morale of the team,” said Khan. “It was extremely difficult to pick the guys up and I think that was reflected in the performance today.”

Pedersen was finally out LBW to Ryan Corns for 59 when the batsman missed a sweep to a low full toss and was hit on the toe in front of the stumps to make it 156 for 2 in the 39th over. Rizwan Mahmood was claimed next by Asif Khan, given LBW for 1 after mistiming a sweep.

Michael Pedersen came in next and generated a rapid 42-run stand with Klokker in which the captain Pedersen contributed 30 of the runs before being bowled behind his legs by Cush. Pedersen walked across his stumps to play a pull and missed making it 201 for 4. Cush got his second when Troels Thogersen left for 10 after pulling a short ball straight to Corns coming in from the midwicket rope. Corns got his second on the last ball of the 49th when Wright took a catch on the circle to claim Naveed Mughal for 7.

But Klokker stayed to the end as Denmark finished 240 for 6 in their 50. Klokker brought up his 50 in 81 balls with two boundaries before reaching his century in 137 balls with just one more boundary added. He patiently knocked the ball into the gaps, batting responsibly to make sure he stayed to the end.

USA started the chase using their fourth different opening combination in six matches with Sushil Nadkarni and Cush walking out to the middle. Heading into the final match against Denmark, USA’s first wicket partnerships in the tournament resulted in 37, 9, 2, 3, and 6 runs. Reshuffling the top one more time made no difference as Nadkarni holed out to mid on for 7 off the bowling of Basit Raja to make it 12 for 1.

Lunch was taken at the four over mark with the score 18 for 1 and when play was restarted, Corns was run out for 4. Aftab Ahmed bowled a good length ball that Corns tried to flick through the on side and missed to be hit on the knee roll. A big LBW shout was given as the ball went to first slip where Thogersen fielded and fired at the stumps. Corns had shuffled out of his crease during the LBW shout and when Thogersen connected with a direct hit, Corns had to go.

Raja claimed his second when Cush dragged the ball onto his stumps for 16 going for a booming drive on one knee. Baker gave Raja his third when he pulled the medium pacer to deep fine leg for 6 and USA was on the way to another batting slide at 48 for 4.

Massiah was the next to go, given out LBW for the third time in the tournament as he mistimed a sweep. It appeared that he hit the ball onto his pad and Massiah was irate with the decision. His frustration boiled over as he started yelling at the umpire Vinay Kumar while gesturing with his bat that he had hit the ball. But USA’s captain had to walk off for 14 to make it 62 for 5.

Wright missed a sweep off left-arm spinner Bashir Shah to be dead in front for 4 making it 76 for 6. It appeared USA might have a decent partnership going with Kadu and Rashard Marshall at the crease, but that ended when Marshall drove a full ball back at Pedersen who flicked the ball with his fingertips on the way to the stumps with Kadu backing up out of the crease at the non-striker’s end. Kadu walked off for 5 and on the very next ball, Marshall was run out for 27. He drove Pedersen to extra cover and set off while Asif Khan, fresh at the non-striker’s end, was ball-watching. Khan stayed rooted to the crease and Marshall tried to hurry back, but the throw from Raja to Klokker behind the stumps was in time for the bails to come off with Marshall short and USA was reduced to 94 for 8. Khan was then out stumped for 2 overbalancing on a forward prod to Pedersen to make it 105 for 9.

Forrest and Ghous then came to the crease and put on USA’s biggest partnership of the day, 51 runs for the 10th wicket. The previous high was the 18 put on by Kadu and Marshall for the seventh. The two batted sensibly to knock the ball around until Forrest was LBW to the medium pace of Iqbal for 28. Forrest top scored for USA on the day as they were bowled out for 156 in 43 overs.

“The team itself I think is of a certain quality,” said Khan. “We’ve played opposition that’s of a lot higher standard than the teams here, people like Scotland, UAE, Canada, Bermuda who we’ve beaten regularly. So we’ve proven that we can perform at this level, even higher.”

“However, coming into this specific tournament, we were undercooked. I keep reiterating that point. We were undercooked, we weren’t prepared and that’s not really the fault of the players, or the management or the coaching staff. That is an issue within the administration that they need to look at with the whole development process, how we’re preparing teams, how we’re organizing our schedules and to really get those people involved who are competent enough to do that. Right now, without being too critical or judgmental of people involved, I think there are certain individuals who maybe don’t really understand the way teams function at this level and how the organization should be carried out.”

“So maybe the entire US structure needs to be looked at again to see whether we can produce a more efficient structure that can actually help the team grow. We should start now with the Under-19s, prepare them, start organizing tours for them and really start giving them the experience so that we can push these players forward. If we don’t do that, we keep repeating the same old tactics. Then you’ll eventually see the same results like this tournament.”

The next international competition scheduled for the USA senior team is this July in Toronto where the ICC Americas Division One will be held as a Twenty20 tournament to decide a pair of spots in the 2012 ICC World Twenty20 Global Qualifier due to be held in the UAE early next year. USA’s next ICC World Cricket League competition will also be in 2012 when Division Four is scheduled to take place.

USA Cricket: Four-wicket defeat to Italy sends USA back to Division Four

openingbat — Fri, 28 Jan 2011 13:57:00 GMT

Now, you can get all the USA Cricket updates via Facebook. Also follow us on Twitter via @dreamcricket

By Peter Della Penna in Hong Kong

Match Scorecard | Live Updates

USA posted their best batting effort since the first match of the tournament against Hong Kong, but it was not enough as Man of the Match Peter Petricola scored 69 not out to lead Italy past the target of 223 with four wickets and three overs to spare at Mission Road on Friday at ICC WCL Division Three in Hong Kong.

Pic (Right): Peter Petricola gets a hug from Hemantha Jayasena after hitting the winning runs

With the defeat, USA’s record fell to 2-3 while Italy rose to 2-3 and with a better run rate than USA, Italy finished fourth meaning USA finished in fifth place after the group stage and has been relegated to Division Four along with Denmark. The only win for the Danish side in the tournament came against USA.

“Let me just start first and foremost by expressing on behalf of the team how extremely disappointed we are with our performance,” said USA Team Manager Imran Khan. “Obviously the results and the way things have gone this week, after a great start, we unfortunately didn’t capitalize and go on to achieve promotion and the victory we thought we could achieve. So from that perspective we’re extremely disappointed. On behalf of the squad, I’d like to apologize to the fans and followers of cricket in the US for what’s obviously transpired.”

“We’ve had a good couple of years and done rather well. We’ve shown the potential that we have in the country but unfortunately, sometimes those streaks and those victories come to an end and today was that time. As for US cricket and where do we go from here, I think with everything that ends, there comes great opportunity to rethink, reevaluate, reformulate a new strategy, a new policy and to move forward. Maybe this is a blessing in disguise. We can start to look at our development program in the US, start to give the young guys an opportunity to develop their cricket.”

Italy won the toss and sent USA in to bat on another cool overcast morning. Sushil Nadkarni came up to open for the first time in the tournament alongside Carl Wright. For the third match in a row, Wright failed at the top, getting out for a 12-ball duck when he pulled Din Alaud straight to Petricola at square leg to make it 6 for 1.

Ryan Corns then made his debut at number three and the 20-year-old played a solid innings, helping to build USA’s fourth highest partnership of the tournament by putting on 66 with Nadkarni. Corns stroked four boundaries in his knock before he played back to a full delivery from Petricola and was struck dead in front for 30 to make it 72 for 2 in the 21st over.

Pic (Right): Usman Shuja and Steve Massiah walk off the field after another defeat

Steve Massiah then built another half-century stand with Nadkarni, putting on 53 before Nadkarni tried sweeping legspinner Hemantha Jayasena and gloved a catch to the keeper Hayden Patrizi to depart for 47. Lennox Cush came out and was gone for 1 when he was stumped off a leg side wide after he missed a flick to midwicket off medium pacer Gayashan Munasinghe.

USA took the batting power play with Massiah and Rashard Marshall at the crease at the start of the 43rd over, but Massiah was pinned on the crease to the first ball from Munasinghe and was out LBW to give the bowler his second wicket making the score 167 for 5. Marshall got a good start, but fell when he pulled a waist high full toss from Petricola to Michael Raso at deep square leg to make it 203 for 6. Usman Shuja was bowled first ball by Petricola swinging for the fences while Orlando Baker was caught at mid on off another waist high full toss to give Petricola three in the over and four for the innings and USA was 211 for 8 in 49.

Durale Forrest and Asif Khan hit Dilan Fernando for 11 in the final over to boost USA to 222 for 8 in 50 overs. USA looked well set to score a minimum of 240 at the 30 over mark when they were 105 for 2 and had Nadkarni batting with Massiah, but stumbled badly towards the end and in the final analysis, they were 20 to 30 runs short of where they should have ended up.

USA came out in the field and started off with two quick wickets as Kevin Darlington and Wright teamed up for a pair of dismissals. The first to go was Andy Northcote for 13, who swished at a pitched up delivery and gave a simple edge behind. Next was the captain Alessandro Bonora for 10, who tried to defend a short of a length ball and gave another healthy edge to Wright making it 39 for 2.

It was then that USA’s fielding woes started to rear their ugly head again. Damian Fernando was dropped off the bowling of Darlington by Corns on 17 on a diving effort at point. While Fernando was dismissed in the next over by Shuja without adding to his score, the error was a harbinger of things to come. Shuja also accounted for Damian Crowley who mistimed a pull to mid on where Khan took a safe catch to make it 52 for 4 and the momentum was clearly in USA’s favor.

However, Italy’s rock solid all-rounder Petricola was at the crease and Patrizi had started to offer good support. Early in Patrizi’s innings with Wright up to the stumps and Forrest bowling, the batsman sent in edge in Nadkarni’s direction at first slip, but the vice-captain was late reacting to the chance and the ball flew to his left to go for a boundary.

With the score on 83 and Patrizi on 16, another chance came off Forrest’s bowling that was left on the table. Petricola was on strike and missed a flick off his pads before setting off for a leg bye. Patrizi was slow to respond and Forrest had a head start going after the ball off his follow through. He picked it up adjacent to the pitch and from five yards away gave an underhand flick towards the stumps at the striker’s end, but missed with the ball going for two leg byes as Petricola came back for an overthrow with no one backing up.

Petricola was then dropped on 30 when the score was at 120 for 4 after 31 overs. Wright was up to the stumps again for Baker, who returned at the start of the 32nd over to start his second spell and on the very first delivery he bowled, Petricola went to cut a good length ball giving an edge that Wright could not hold on to. That was the backbreaker for USA and the reactions in the field to the drop said as much when everyone put hands on heads.

The partnership continued and it only ended after Patrizi had reached 50 and the stand crossed 100, ending at 102 when Patrizi was LBW to Darlington at the start of Italy’s batting power play in the 38th over to make it 154 for 5. Raso came in and picked up right where Patrizi left off, turning over the strike with ease as USA looked more and more despondent in the field. A 63-run stand followed and when Raso was dismissed six runs short of victory, no one moved an inch to congratulate Cush for taking the catch or Baker for getting the wicket. Defeat was inevitable and it happened one over later when Petricola hit the winning shot with a top edged four over Wright.

Hong Kong defeated Papua New Guinea to finish 3-2 and in second place, making it six times in seven tournaments in the World Cricket League that the home team has finished in the top two and been promoted. Oman defeated Denmark in Friday’s other contest to finish third. Hong Kong and PNG will face off for the second time in two days in the championship match at Kowloon CC on Saturday while Oman will play Italy in the third place game at Hong Kong CC. USA will play Denmark at Mission Road in the third place game, the same opponent on the same ground where their tournament began to unravel. Live coverage of the match will begin Friday night at 7:45 p.m. EST on DreamCricket.

[Pictures courtesy of Peter Della Penna/DreamCricket.com]

USA Cricket: Massiah & Wright upstage hosts as USA wins by 7 wickets

openingbat — Sat, 22 Jan 2011 13:35:00 GMT

Now, you can get all the USA Cricket updates via Facebook. Also follow us on Twitter via @dreamcricket

By Peter Della Penna in Hong Kong

[ Scorecard ] [ Live Updates ]

A solid effort in the field was backed up by a dominant batting effort as USA defeated Hong Kong by 7 wickets at Kowloon Cricket Club on Saturday at ICC WCL Division Three in Hong Kong.

Pic (Right): Steve Massiah hits a six over long on to bring up his half-century [Courtesy: Peter Della Penna/DreamCricket.com]

USA captain Steve Massiah was named Man of the Match after taking advantage of the short boundaries to finish 97 not out with eight fours and six sixes.

USA won the toss and elected to field first on an overcast and chilly morning in Hong Kong. Right from the start, Kevin Darlington and Usman Shuja applied terrific pressure. It only took until the third over for a breakthrough to come when Courtney Kruger departed for 1 with the score also on 1 after he swished at a good length ball to feather an edge through to Carl Wright.

Hussain Butt came in at first drop but left a short time later when he cut a rare loose delivery from Darlington to backward point where Rashard Marshall knifed it out of the air one-handed to his right to send Butt on his way for 5, making it 33 for 2. Mark Chapman came in next and after a slow start, got his eye in to play a pair of crisp strokes for boundaries.

However, he was needlessly run out by his partner Roy Lamsam. On the last ball of the 17th over with the score on 59, Chapman defended a ball from Orlando Baker toward Marshall at point and Lamsam took off from the non-striker’s end. There was no run, but instead of staying in his crease, Chapman panicked and decided to run only after Marshall had fielded and thrown the ball to Baker in front of the stumps at the non-striker’s end. Baker dove to break the stumps with Chapman still several yards short and the 16-year-old had to go for 10.

Pic (Right): Carl Wright hits his third six to bring up his half-century [Courtesy: Peter Della Penna/DreamCricket.com]

Four balls later, Irfan Ahmed attempted a loose drive to be clean bowled by Shuja and Hong Kong was in a deep hole at 59 for 4. Nizakat Khan and Lamsam constructed a sensational 99-run stand for the fifth wicket that only became undone by another piece of dreadful running between the wickets. Khan drilled a full ball from Baker straight to Massiah at cover and immediately set off for a run while Lamsam rightly stayed put. As Massiah gently tossed the ball to Wright at the striker’s end, Lamsam decided to sacrifice himself and was halfway down the pitch when the bails were dislodged. The opener threw away a chance at a century and was gone for 83 in the 39th over.

For the second time in the innings, a runout brought a second wicket when Waqas Barkat was caught behind off Baker two balls later to make it 158 for 6. Khan was joined by the captain Najeeb Amar and the two added quick runs until Khan was runout for 67 in similar fashion to Lamsam. Amar was on strike and cut a short ball from Lennox Cush straight to Muhammad Ghous at point. There was no single there, but Amar took off as soon as he made contact. Ghous fielded and calmly tossed the ball to Wright as Khan decided to leave his crease late and let the captain continue his innings.

Pic (Right): Massiah accepting Man of the Match Award [Courtesy ICC/CricketEurope]

It was not a bad decision in the end as Amar blasted his way to 63 in 37 balls by the end of the innings. Cush claimed two quick wickets including one on the second ball of the 50th over, but then was assaulted by Amar on the final four balls of the innings to the tune of a four and three sixes. There were 28 runs in the over as Hong Kong finished 256 for 9.

“The guys did quite well,” said USA Team Manager Imran Khan. “It’s a small ground. The wicket’s quite flat. Shuja bowled his overs quite well at the start, contained them well. Darlo bowled from the shorter end and didn’t concede too many. It gave us a pretty reasonable start. We had them seven down quickly so we were pretty happy with that start. To restrict them to 250 was I think a good effort by the guys.”

Based on the size of the ground, 300 looked to be a par score, but with Hong Kong holding a home field advantage, the match was evenly balanced at the innings break. While cloud cover was there throughout Hong Kong’s innings, Baker and Wright opened USA’s chase in much brighter conditions.

The two batsmen went through a testing opening spell from Irfan Ahmed and the pressure he applied resulted in a runout for the first wicket. Baker tried to flick a good length ball wide of mid on and took off for a risky single. Wright stayed put at the bowler’s end while the fielder Amar collected and tossed the ball to Barkat behind the stumps to dismiss Baker for 13 making the score 37 for 1.

Massiah came to the wicket and offered steady support to Wright, who took command of the chase with an assured knock. Wright was particularly harsh to Amar, blasting him for multiple sixes into the netting guarding the KCC clubhouse. Wright brought up his 50 in 81 balls and he looked set for a century until he tamely gave a return catch to Nizakat Khan to fall for 82. The legspinner bowled an half-tracker that Wright tried to smack off the back foot but Khan dove to his left to pull off a brilliant catch to end the partnership at 109. It was a sorely needed contribution by Wright, his first half-century for USA since he scored 76 in a Man of the Match performance against Jersey on February 23, 2010 at ICC WCL Division Five in Nepal.

“I’ve given all my trust in the selectors and they have given me opportunities so I tried my best to come out today and just be positive and try to occupy the crease a little bit,” said Wright. “[Coach Clayton] Lambert and all the guys that rallied around me and gave me confidence, I’d like to say well done to them.”

At 146 for 2 in the 32nd over, USA was comfortably on track for an easy win. While Massiah played the anchor role when Wright was at the crease, he turned on the jets once he was joined by Sushil Nadkarni. Massiah scored 26 runs in his first 61 balls with one four and two sixes. In his last 60 balls, he scored 71 runs with seven fours and four more sixes. Nadkarni scored his 38 runs at better than a run a ball until he was clean bowled just 12 runs short of the target by left-arm spinner Nadeem Ahmed. Nadkarni was going for a fourth six with a wild heave that missed everything.

Massiah still had a chance at his century, but a few more wides bowled by the Hong Kong attack dimmed the possibility of accomplishing the feat. Hong Kong bowled 23 wides in all, including 14 extra runs down leg side in one over by medium pacer Asif Khan. Cush wound up hitting the winning single over mid on as USA reached the target with 10 balls to spare.

USA will face Denmark on Sunday at Mission Road. Denmark lost by 7 wickets to Italy at Hong Kong CC while Papua New Guinea defeated Oman by 39 runs at Mission Road in Saturday’s other games. Oman captain Hemal Mehta finished unbeaten on 123 for the tournament’s first century and did well to rebuild the innings for his team after PNG bowler Hitolo Areni took a hat-trick in the seventh over of the chase. Live coverage of the match between USA and Denmark will begin at 7:45 p.m. EST Saturday night on DreamCricket.

[ Scorecard ] [ Live Updates ]

USA Cricket: Massiah says pressure is on Hong Kong

openingbat — Fri, 21 Jan 2011 11:43:00 GMT

Now, you can get all the USA Cricket updates via Facebook. Also follow us on Twitter via @dreamcricket

By Peter Della Penna in Hong Kong

On the eve of the first match for USA against Hong Kong at ICC WCL Division Three, USA captain Steve Massiah says that the pressure is on the host team to perform up to expectations. The home side has finished in the top two to gain promotion in five out of the last six World Cricket League events and Massiah feels that expectation is a bigger burden on Hong Kong to win than on USA.

“Based on the history there, I don’t think we have any pressure then if the home team would be the one expected to win,” said Massiah at a media conference for the six team captains on Friday afternoon. “We’re pretty relaxed. We’re just going to try to play to the best of our abilities and to our strengths. Obviously we don’t know a whole lot about the Hong Kong team so pretty much we’re gonna play what we see and we’re gonna take it one game at a time. We’re not gonna look past Hong Kong or any other team. Our journey is going to begin with baby steps and tomorrow’s our first baby step towards our goal which is ultimately to come one-two in the tournament.”

Hong Kong captain Najeeb Amar also admitted to feeling a bit of pressure in the first game in front of the home fans.

“We have a home ground advantage, but at the same time we have pressure as well because it’s our home ground and our people want to see victory for Hong Kong,” said Amar. “So definitely there is pressure on the Hong Kong team.”

USA’s match against Hong Kong will be played at Kowloon Cricket Club. None of the grounds used in this tournament have boundaries bigger than 65 meters in any direction while some of the boundaries are believed to be as small as 50 meters. This is the home of the famous Hong Kong Sixes and fireworks are expected to be on display from the batsmen throughout the eight-day tournament.

Sushil Nadkarni and Rashard Marshall in particular will be feasting their eyes on the short boundaries. However, the offensive assault from USA could be neutralized by the fact that USA’s spin-heavy bowling unit will also be in the firing line of any opposition they come up against. Massiah does not feel that USA’s bowling attack will be at a disadvantage though.

“To be quite honest, it’s going to be [small] for both teams so I don’t think one team has an advantage,” said Massiah. “I would say if any team has an advantage it would be the home team Hong Kong. I guess that’s the whole point of being the home team, to have some advantage. They would know the grounds and obviously the conditions very well. For us, it’s not a huge disappointment. We don’t look at it in any way negatively. I think we’re here to play cricket and we’re here to play good cricket. Whatever facilities are here, we’re going to try to make the best of it.”

Amar says that the size of the grounds can potentially lull some teams into a false sense of confidence that they can clear the ropes easily. As a result, it can backfire and lead to wickets.

“We’re used to playing in these grounds, both leagues we use to play in these grounds,” said Amar. “We can see they’re small grounds, but at the same time sometimes it’s really hard to cross the boundary actually because sometimes batsmen get trapped by the bowlers. So it looks like it’s easy to hit it across the boundary, but it’s not easy actually.”

USA head coach Clayton Lambert said he was pleased with the progress everyone has made this week in adjusting to the wickets here, which he described as a bit on the slow side and sometimes two-paced. Massiah is confident that both the veterans and the new players will shine on the small grounds at bat and in the field.

“We understood coming here that the boundaries are not the biggest but we have a pretty balanced attack so I don’t think it’s going to affect us because our attack is a very experienced attack and we have some very exciting young prospects too,” said Massiah. “Hopefully it will be good enough to get by in this tournament.”

USA’s first match of the tournament against Hong Kong begins Saturday at 9:15 a.m. Live coverage on DreamCricket will begin Friday night at 7:45 p.m. EST.