USA Cricketer : Orlando Baker

USA Cricket: 2013 ICC WCL Division Three Report Card Part 3 - Outlook for USA's 50-over future

openingbat — Thu, 16 May 2013 21:22:00 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)

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

Part 3 - Outlook for USA’s 50-over future

1. Sort out the coaching situation – According to multiple team sources, Robin Singh was furious when talking to the team over the phone from India after USA lost to Bermuda on the last day of round-robin play. It’s hard to understand why he was furious though. Was it because he took a bigger paycheck from the Mumbai Indians to be in India instead of with USA during the Division Three tournament?

Singh is understood to have spoken to the team or team management after every match in Bermuda. Coaching by conference call is no way to coach. At the U-19 and men’s level, USA’s only successes under Robin Singh and his crew have been a second-place finish last September at ICC WCL Division Four and against ICC Americas competition, which is the least competitive standard USA encounters in international play.

Image (right) - Robin Singh, pictured during a match-day training session at the 2013 ICC Americas Division One Twenty20 tournament in Florida, has USA way down the totem pole on his list of coaching priorities. Will he commit fully to USA or should USACA search elsewhere? [Courtesy: Peter Della Penna/DreamCricket.com]

It is very hard to understand why Robin Singh is paid a princely sum for his services when the USA Cricket Association is an administrative pauper. A cash-strapped governing body certainly should be able to find a less expensive coaching option that will get them more value, specifically someone who is based in the USA and is willing to work with the players on a more consistent basis locally. Singh is paid to more or less be a chaperone on tours or as was the case in Bermuda, to consult by telephone rather than in person because he has higher priorities in India.

USACA needs to put their foot down once and for all to make Singh choose between coaching USA or sticking with his other commitments in Twenty20 franchise leagues around the world. If he wants to make more money coaching with the Mumbai Indians in the Indian Premier League or the Khulna Royal Bengals in the Bangladesh Premier League then that's a perfectly normal decision. Coaching USA should be someone's first priority though, not their third, fourth or fifth.

2. Choose a new captain – Steve Massiah took over the role from Richard Staple as USA captain at the ICC Americas Division One tournament in August 2006. There are currently 42 international teams that USA has either played against from 2006-2013, been at the same tournament as USA in that time or are currently ranked above USA in the global 50-over rankings. Of those 42 teams, only three still have the same captain in 50-over cricket: Argentina (Esteban MacDermott), Papua New Guinea (Rarua Dikana) and Tanzania (Hamisi Abdallah).

It’s worth noting that not only has every ICC Full Member changed their 50-over captain in that time, but also every one of the High Performance Program Associate teams. Having a new captain is not necessarily a reflection of a regression in skills from the incumbent. It’s about having fresh ideas and fresh styles, trying something different when the status quo has not achieved desired results.

Image (left) - Steve Massiah, pictured batting against Uganda, has been USA captain since 2006, during which USA has failed to reach the ICC World Cup Qualifier in two consecutive World Cup qualification cycles. [Courtesy: Peter Della Penna/DreamCricket.com]

USA has effectively stood still in the global rankings since Massiah became captain. As a result of their 10th place finish at the 2005 ICC Trophy under Staple, USA was due to participate in 2007 ICC WCL Division Three in Australia before an ICC suspension dropped them down to Division Five. USA has since clawed back into Division Three twice. They were relegated from Division Three in 2011 and are now stuck there after a third place finish in 2013 instead of advancing to the 2014 ICC World Cup Qualifier. Prior to Massiah becoming captain, USA had participated in every single ICC Trophy, the former name of the ICC World Cup Qualifier, from 1979 through 2005. In seven years under Massiah's captaincy, no progress has been made and USA has arguably gone backwards after failing to reach the ICC World Cup Qualifier, let alone the main event, during two World Cup qualification cycles ahead of the 2011 and 2015 ICC World Cup.

Massiah is USA’s all-time leading scorer in one-day cricket and provided solid contributions at Division Three against Italy and Oman. However, his leadership has become stale and captaincy appears to have had some drain on his batting. He has not scored a century in tournament play since 2006. He doesn’t command a place in USA’s T20 team, let alone a spot as captain, with a T20 average of 11.00 in 14 games. So it’s conceivable that Massiah might not be a participant in any ICC tournament for two years when the next Division Three tournament is anticipated to take place in 2015. The time is right to make a change.

There are a few players who are good candidates to be USA’s captain in both formats. Sushil Nadkarni has been USA's vice-captain for several years and served as captain of the T20 team in the UAE last year. Orlando Baker led USA well in March at the 2013 ICC Americas Division One T20 and has plenty of experience under his belt.

Image (right) - After leading USA to an 8-0 record in March at the 2013 ICC Americas Division One Twenty20 tournament, Orlando Baker would make a good choice to become USA's captain across all formats. [Courtesy: Peter Della Penna/DreamCricket.com]

USA could also choose to go in a different direction and adopt policies that countries such as Hong Kong and Nepal have employed by naming a much younger player as captain to give them time to ease into the role. In that scenario, Steven Taylor would be the obvious choice. Taylor served as vice-captain to Baker in March during the ICC Americas tournament. He will most likely be captaining the USA U-19 team in Canada this July and has previously captained the USA U-15 squad in 2009 so he is already gaining plenty of experience in leadership positions. It might be good for Baker or Nadkarni to be the captain for the next few years though until Taylor or another up and coming player like Ryan Corns, who captained USA during one of the two T20s against Canada during the Auty Cup tour in November, is ready to take over the mantle.

3. Commit to a core squad, one with better balance focused more on specialist batsmen and bowlers instead of an overload of allrounders and one-dimensional sloggers– USA's selection snafus were chronicled on DreamCricket.com well before the squad took part in Division Three. Taking a much closer look at the composition of USA's squad, they went to Bermuda with only three specialist batsmen: Massiah, Nadkarni and Rashard Marshall. The rest of the 14-man squad was made up of two wicketkeepers, four allrounders and five bowlers. It is almost impossible to win a tournament with such an unbalanced squad.

Taking the field with only three specialist batsmen, USA was basically forced to pick all four allrounders - Baker, Timroy Allen, Barrington Bartley and Japen Patel - in their starting eleven every game during the round-robin phase. Several members of USA’s management touted the fact that USA could bat to number 10 with Neil McGarrell and Elmore Hutchinson down the order, but that meant nothing if the players taking up those spots throughout the order are bits and pieces batsmen rather than full-fledged specialists. The truth is that having so many allrounders created the illusion that USA's batting contained more depth than there actually was. It also meant that no matter what, it would be near impossible for Danial Ahmed or Naseer Jamali to get a game in place of one of the allrounders because it would make USA's batting even thinner.

The unbalanced squad selection came back to bite USA by the end of the tournament, especially when Nadkarni was out with an injury in the final round-robin match against Bermuda. USA was not a team playing with six specialist batsmen in their usual starting eleven, let alone did they have the luxury to call upon a reserve specialist batsman. When Nadkarni couldn't play, USA sent out a starting eleven consisting of two specialist batsmen, two wicketkeepers, four allrounders and three specialist bowlers. It should surprise no one that they lost.

This was why dumping players like Aditya Thyagarajan and Aditya Mishra ahead of the tournament was a mistake. Specialist batsmen who can dig in and rotate the strike rather than relying on fours and sixes to score all of their runs would have been very handy to have against Uganda and Bermuda but they were nowhere to be found.

Although Marshall is a specialist batsman and Allen an allrounder, they have similar batting styles as does Bartley. Marshall demonstrated against Oman that he can knock the ball around for singles, but all three are heavily reliant on clearing the ropes to score the majority of their runs and they sometimes struggle to adjust if the match situation calls for a different method of scoring. At most, two players who play in that style can afford to be in the middle order and not three. Japen Patel playing at number nine and not bowling means he is not capable of holding down a spot in the team on his batting or bowling alone, let alone as an allrounder. Two of those spots in the starting eleven could have gone to specialist batsmen or one each to a batsman and a bowler like Danial Ahmed.

Overall, USA made six changes to the squad that advanced from Division Four in Malaysia. Nepal, the Division Four champions, only made one change to their squad for Division Three in Bermuda. Changing almost half the squad that gained promotion for USA into Division Three was a radical maneuver and clearly didn’t pay off. Meanwhile, Nepal stuck to their core group and wound up Division Three champions.

Image (left) - Aditya Thyagarajan is one of several veterans whose presence was sorely missed in Bermuda at 2013 ICC Division Three. [Courtesy: Peter Della Penna/DreamCricket.com]

The respective squad selections by USA and Nepal from 2012 ICC WCL Division Four to 2013 ICC WCL Division Three are a microcosm of a much deeper issue. From 2008 ICC WCL Division Five in Jersey - the first tournament that USA and Nepal ever played against each other - to 2013 ICC WCL Division Three in Bermuda, Nepal has used 26 players in 81 games in 50-over and T20 cricket. Meanwhile, USA has used almost three times as many, 67 players, across 90 games in 50-over and T20 cricket (see list at end of section three). The list of 67 does not include four other players - Abhijit Joshi, Glen Hall, Hemant Punoo and Josh Dascombe - who either toured with USA's senior team without appearing in a starting eleven or played for USA in unofficial/warm-up matches. USA has picked 52 players that have appeared in 50-over and/or 20-over cricket plus an additional 15 players who have appeared solely in 20-over cricket. Nearly half of those players, 30, were picked for a single tour in that timespan. This means that USA has used more players for a solitary tour experience than Nepal has used for all of its tours combined from 2008-2013.

Those numbers, 67 total players and 30 one-and-dones, are absolutely staggering figures. It can’t be blamed on lack of availability for players to get time off from work or school classes either. It simply comes down to USACA’s lack of vision and planning, with almost no continuity from tournament to tournament.

USA only had five players in their squad for Bermuda that participated in the previous Division Three tournament in Hong Kong in 2011. Clearly, experienced hands like Thyagarajan and Shuja were missed more than anyone in Bermuda, but the services of others who were part of the team in Malaysia such as Mishra, who was USA’s T20 vice-captain in 2012, and Corns were also missed. More continuity and faith in a core group could have led to better results.

Looking elsewhere, a model Associate Member like Ireland has more or less used the same core group of players over the last few years which unsurprisingly has been a recipe for success. From the 15-man squad that was picked to go to the 2011 ICC World Cup, 11 were named in the squad that will play two ODIs against Pakistan later this month. The four who weren’t – Andre Botha, Nigel Jones, Boyd Rankin and Albert van der Merwe – are absent because all four have retired from international cricket. Regardless of the fact that the majority of Ireland’s players are contracted professionals and USA’s are amateurs with either classes or jobs to attend on a daily basis, Ireland’s administration has shown faith in a core group of players and stuck with them.

From the start of the 2011 ICC World Cup, Ireland has used a total of 19 players in ODIs and T20s. Essentially, Ireland has had 11 core players from 2011-2013 and has committed itself to developing four players to replace the four who retired since the 2011 ICC World Cup. Meanwhile, USA has used 50 players in official one-day and T20 matches from 2011-2013. Ireland and Nepal's consistent selection policies have been rewarded with on-field success while USA's fluctuating fortunes are a reflection of their inconsistent, mercurial, haphazard and scatterbrained selection policies.

Players USA has used in official matches since 2008 listed in alphebetical order
Note - Players who only appeared in a single tour from 2008-2013 are listed in bold italics

George Adams, Danial Ahmed, Quasen Alfred, Timroy Allen, Imran Awan, Orlando Baker, Barrington Bartley, Adil Bhatti, Ryan Corns, Robert Cresser, Lennox Cush, Kevin Darlington, Jignesh Desai, Sudesh Dhaniram, Akeem Dodson (wk), Dennis Evans, Durale Forrest, Karan Ganesh, Bhim George, Muhammad Ghous, Adrian Gordon, Hussain Haidar, Elmore Hutchinson, Moazzam Imtiaz, Naseer Jamali, Nasir Javed, Howard Johnson, Ritesh Kadu (wk), Asif Khan, Bilal Khan, Rahul Kukreti (wk), Rashard Marshall, Steve Massiah, Neil McGarrell, Ashhar Mehdi (wk), Stu Mills (wk), Aditya Mishra, Masood Mohamed, Andy Mohammed, Shahid Munir, Nauman Mustafa (wk), Sushil Nadkarni, Kumar Nandalal, Amir Nanjee, Japen Patel, Mital Patel, Timil Patel, William Perkins (wk), Steve Pitter, Abhimanyu Rajp, Gowkaran Roopnarine, Saqib Saleem, Greg Sewdial, Niraj Shah, Samarth Shah, Hammad Shahid, Usman Shuja, Saami Siddiqui (wk), Charan Singh, Nicholas Standford, Timothy Surujbally, Steven Taylor (wk), Aditya Thyagarajan, Anand Tummala, Clain Williams, Carl Wright (wk), Saurabh Verma.

4. Find at least one sponsor for the national team – USA and Oman were the only two teams in Bermuda not to have a sponsor on their jerseys. The USA jerseys themselves were flimsy, with the lettering on the jersey of at least one player falling off halfway through the tournament. Last year, USACA apparently had a brief arrangement with Reebok to have their jerseys provided but that deal has since dried up. It’s hard to believe that a USA national team in any sport has to pay for their uniforms instead of being paid by a major apparel sponsor to wear that sponsor’s logo, but that is the situation USACA continues to find itself in.

Although USACA cleverly presents several business entities as “USACA Partners” on their web site, USACA doesn’t have any genuine sponsors. An ideal business tie would be with one of the many domestic airlines in the USA. Since 2011, USACA has had two board members who are employees at a pair of major airlines, United and American. Such a sponsorship might help defray costs of flying players in and out of Florida for camps, trials and domestic tournaments.

One of former USACA CEO Don Lockerbie’s failures was in not securing any sort of sponsorships in the five to six-figure range. Lockerbie overestimated USA’s market value and kept seeking million dollar deals which never appeared. Although he played a major role in linking USACA with New Zealand Cricket and other investors to form Cricket Holdings America LLC, that partnership has so far done little to advance cricket in the USA financially or developmentally.

Image (above) - Uganda had a sponsor, Mehta Group, at 2013 ICC WCL Division Three. Meanwhile, USA was without corporate support for yet another international tournament. [Courtesy: Peter Della Penna/DreamCricket.com]

There’s no reason why USACA should not be able to find a bank sponsor, airline sponsor, hotel sponsor, automobile sponsor and/or a beverage sponsor in addition to a separate corporation or business as a title sponsor for all of its endeavors. Securing sponsorships is supposed to be Darren Beazley’s calling card. USA’s stakeholders will see over the next few years if he lives up to his billing in that regard.

Reaching the 2014 ICC World Cup Qualifier might have made it easier for Beazley to secure a sponsorship and finishing in the top four would have almost made it a slam dunk because USA would have then qualified for the ICC High Performance Program, which would have carried admission into the Intercontinental Cup as well as ODI status. USA would have then had a guaranteed number of fixtures each year outside of ICC tournaments. Another domino effect of that would have been an incentive to give a handful of USA’s younger players such as Taylor, Allen and Muhammad Ghous central contracts with any sponsorship funds that could have flowed in.

Instead, USA will now be without a 50-over ICC tournament until at least 2015 and if USA doesn’t finish in the top six at the ICC World Twenty20 Qualifier in November, USA will not participate in a single 50-over or 20-over ICC tournament in 2014. It’s nearly impossible to award a USA player a central contract when they may only be playing a handful of games a year. It’s also hard to secure sponsorship when a team has only a handful of non-televised fixtures to display a sponsor’s logo on a jersey on the field, meaning the opportunities are limited for the sponsor to get exposure and a return on their investment. That makes Beazley’s job much harder, but not impossible.

[Views expressed in this article are those of the author who was present at all of the team's matches at 2013 ICC WCL Division Three in Bermuda. 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: 2013 ICC WCL Division Three Report Card Part 2 - Player Grades

openingbat — Mon, 13 May 2013 14:17:00 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)

Click here for Part 1 - Team Grades

Part 2 - Player Grades

Steven Taylor – C: The 19-year-old started off the tournament in style by posting USA’s second highest score in limited overs cricket, 162 off 102 balls to lead USA to a win over Nepal. Without Taylor’s dominant performance USA might not have won that match. However, he seemed to have exhausted himself in that match. Low scores piled up in the next few games and his confidence wavered heading into the crucial showdown against Bermuda. After scoring a century against Bermuda in a T20 encounter last March in Florida, Taylor was out for 9 against them in the round-robin encounter in Bermuda.

With the pressure off the next day in the third place game, he set about rebuilding his confidence with 97. His huge score against Nepal helped place him atop the tournament run charts after the round-robin stage and his half-century against Bermuda on the final day guaranteed him the same position at the end of the tournament. Unfortunately, he lacked consistency from game to game. Still, USA should not have had to rely solely on Taylor to score runs to register a win over Uganda or Bermuda.

As for his wicketkeeping/fielding skills, Taylor was as likely to hold onto a chance as to put one down. He took six catches and had three stumpings with the gloves on, but DreamCricket.com’s unofficial stats show he also dropped six chances – five behind the stumps and one in the outfield. In T20s, it appears that Akeem Dodson may get more of the wicketkeeping workload to keep Taylor fresh but in the 50-over game Taylor is the preferred option to keep the batting solid. USA won’t be playing a 50-over ICC tourney for at least two years but if they want to continue using Taylor as a keeper instead of a specialist batsman in that format then he needs to work very hard to improve his glovework, not to mention his fitness, to be able to make it through tournaments better.

Orlando Baker – C: The allrounder opened the batting with Steven Taylor on three occasions, producing mixed results. He provided solid support for Taylor on the opening day with 37 as part of a 125-run first-wicket stand, USA’s highest ever partnership against Nepal. Combined with the 156-run third-wicket stand those two had against Bermuda in the third place playoff, they generated the two highest partnerships by any team in Bermuda. He also combined with Akeem Dodson for an important 82-run third wicket stand in their round-robin game.

While he was a very good partnership builder, Baker didn’t enjoy the same amount of success individually. He made 2 against Italy, then scored 20 while facing up to the unenviable task of taking on Oman opening pacer Munis Ansari, before wrapping up the group stage with 1 against Uganda and 29 against Bermuda. He finished with 89 runs at 17.80 after the group stage. In the playoff match, he made 72 and in the process became the third USA player to pass 1,000 career runs in 50-over cricket.

Image (right) - Orlando Baker bowling at 2013 ICC WCL Division Three. He was USA's most economical seam bowler at the tournament. [Courtesy: Peter Della Penna/DreamCricket.com]

With the ball he was a very restrictive bowler and finished with USA’s second best economy rate, 3.46. He only took one wicket, but had two other chances grassed off his bowling. The conditions against Bermuda on the final day of round-robin play were perfect for Baker’s style of bowling, but USA captain Steve Massiah never gave him the ball, a very curious decision. USA coach Thiru Kumaran stated after the tournament that if he was the captain, he would have definitely given the ball to Baker during Bermuda’s chase. It’s a choice USA may regret for quite a while.

Steve Massiah – D: This is a combination of a C+ for batting and an F for captaincy. Massiah’s highest score was a handy half-century against Italy. After being dropped on 0 off Ansari, Massiah’s 39 against Oman was vital not just for the runs on paper but because he was able to shield the middle and lower order from Ansari’s pace. He top-scored with 24 in USA’s dreadful display against Uganda and then collapsed when the pressure was on in the final round-robin encounter against Bermuda where he was dismissed without scoring. He ended group play with 125 runs at an average of 25.00, then was out first ball in the third place playoff against Bermuda.

His tactical decisions sometimes left a lot to be desired and in some ways were eerily similar to some of the decisions made when USA flopped in Hong Kong at 2011 ICC WCL Division Three. After walking down the pitch in a pressure situation and getting stumped for nought batting at number eight against Oman, Japen Patel was sent in to open in the next game against Uganda. It was as if team management was saying, “We’re afraid this player might fail if he has to enter in a pressure situation later on down the order, so in order to avoid that we’ll send him in to open. Any runs he scores will be a bonus for the team and if he gets out cheaply opening the innings then at least we still have plenty of batsmen to recover.” Disrupting the roles and responsibilities of multiple players to accommodate one player is never a recipe for success. USA proved this by sending Lennox Cush in to open after repeated middle order failures in Hong Kong. USA’s chances for victory against Nepal at Division Four in Malaysia last year were also submarined when Timroy Allen was moved up to number three in the order to shield Massiah, who had been struggling against spin bowling. When USA needed a late surge in that match against Nepal, their best lower order power hitter was back in the pavilion instead of ready to come to the crease.

In the last round-robin match against Bermuda, several strategic errors were made. Slotting Patel in to bat at number nine and not having him bowl was a strange maneuver. Naseer Jamali or Danial Ahmed as specialist bowlers would have been much better options instead of a batsman at number nine. After conceding 20 runs in his only over, Massiah refused to give Hutchinson an opportunity to atone even though he had been USA’s second best wicket-taker coming into the match. Meanwhile, Timroy Allen, who had been struggling with the ball all tournament, was hit for 27 runs off his fourth over but was still brought back for two more spells, albeit bowling spin instead of pace. Allen finished with 1 for 63 off 10 that day.

Massiah also ignored the experienced Orlando Baker, USA’s second most economical bowler in the tournament. Baker is tied for fourth all-time in the wicket-takers list for USA in one-day cricket and has a reputation as a cagey seamer with a nagging line and length that most teams find difficult to score off. Massiah opted to bowl himself instead of Baker. Few, if any other captains, would have tossed the ball to Massiah in those circumstances but he stubbornly bowled himself. With USA needing to keep Bermuda under four an over, he finished with a spell of 1 for 41 in eight overs. Even with only 220 to defend, USA should have beaten Bermuda that day. A combination of poor fielding and poor decision-making before and during the match cost USA not just that game, but a spot in the 2014 ICC World Cup Qualifier.

Sushil Nadkarni – B-: USA’s vice-captain stepped up with a key 73 to bolster USA in a win over Italy and was part of three half-century stands in the tournament, one against Nepal and another two against Italy. He was sent in above Massiah to try to deal with Ansari’s pace against Oman and managed just 7 before making another low score after arriving in the middle order in difficult conditions against Uganda.

Image (left) - Sushil Nadkarni knocks one into the off side against Italy. [Courtesy: Peter Della Penna/DreamCricket.com]

Nadkarni took three catches, including the catch of the tournament for USA against Uganda. USA missed him badly against Bermuda when he had to sit out the final two matches of the tournament with a nerve problem in his left leg, especially since Nadkarni had scored a century against Bermuda in the trial matches in March in Florida ahead of Division Three. He finished the tournament with 114 runs at an average of 28.50, fifth on the team in Bermuda.

Rashard Marshall – B: The middle order batsman produced one of USA’s best ever performances under pressure against Oman. Entering in the 10th over with USA 37 for 3, Marshall survived a missed runout chance early in his innings and went on to make Oman pay, cracking four boundaries and six sixes on his way to finishing 72 not out and taking USA to a two-wicket win. He arrived at a stage against Bermuda where he needed to take USA to a much bigger total but he got into a mixup with Barrington Bartley which ended with Marshall going back to the pavilion for 5.

Marshall finished fourth overall in runs and average at the tournament for USA with 128 at 32.00. He took an outstanding one-handed catch against Bermuda, but also grassed three other chances which is unusual for someone of his fielding ability. It was a decent comeback tournament for Marshall after not playing for USA in over two years.

Timroy Allen - C: Like Taylor, Allen was hot with the bat early in the tournament before cooling off later on. He scored two half-centuries in USA’s first two matches, 67 not out against Nepal followed by 51 not out against Italy. Unfortunately, he only scored 24 runs in the other four matches. He played a foolish shot to get out against Uganda, slogging to deep square leg after Baker had gotten out in the same manner a short time earlier. Against Bermuda he reached 19 before being caught on the boundary which hampered USA’s efforts to post a bigger score. Like Taylor, it would be unfair to pin USA’s batting failures at the back end of the tournament on Allen when several players never produced in any game.

With the ball he was a disappointment, taking four wickets at an average of 51.75 with an economy rate of 5.17 during the group stage. He went for more than five an over against Uganda, taking 2 for 37 in seven overs when Uganda only made 175, and was smacked for 27 off one over against Bermuda before finishing with 1 for 63 in 10. A bigger burden was placed on Allen to perform with the ball in the absence of the experienced Usman Shuja but Allen did not respond very well.

Image (right) - Timroy Allen, pictured in action against Uganda, struggled to take wickets in Bermuda. [Courtesy: Peter Della Penna/DreamCricket.com]

Barrington Bartley – D: Undoubtedly the poorest performing player on tour. There were high expectations for Bartley after his whirlwind century against Bermuda in a trial match against them in March. He assumed a key middle order role for USA in Bermuda but did not deliver once. Bartley came to the crease at the 37th, 45th, 34th, 26th, 31st and 38th over mark during USA’s six games in Division Three. He was never able to remain until the end of the innings. His longest stay at the crease lasted just 20 deliveries when he made 21 but also contributed to the runout of Marshall against Bermuda. His one redeeming moment with the bat came against Oman when he struck two sixes and a four in his short stay to take USA within seven runs of victory before Marshall and Hutchinson finished the job. The largest partnership Bartley contributed to was a 29-run sixth wicket stand in the round-robin match against Bermuda. Overall, he looked like a Twenty20 slogger who seemed unsure how to approach a 50-over innings, especially during difficult situations.

With the ball he was mediocre, taking three wickets during the group stage at an average of 39.66 and an economy rate of 4.40. He was arguably USA’s best bowler in a losing effort against Uganda, taking 1 for 25 in 10 overs. After his failures with the bat, he had one more chance to save face with the ball against Bermuda but he mixed in boundaries with dots and could not sustain pressure long enough to keep them at bay. He was okay as a fielder but did not do enough with bat or ball.

Neil McGarrell – A-: One of the few players who can hold their head up high after coming back from Bermuda, McGarrell performed at a consistently high level in what may turn out to be his only ICC tournament in a USA uniform. He was USA’s leading wicket-taker and finished the group stage tied for the tournament lead in wickets with 12 at an average of 14.58 and an economy rate of 3.55. He only bowled one truly bad over the entire tournament when he was swept for three boundaries by Laurence Sematimba of Uganda.

He could’ve been even more productive with the ball had five catches not been put down off his bowling, although one of those was a return chance he was responsible for. In the field, he took one catch but managed to shell three chances overall, including a crucial chance off Christopher Douglas at slip when the Bermuda wicketkeeper was on 64. It was the only blemish on his gritty performance that day when he scored 45 not out at number seven and then took 1 for 21 in 10 overs while bowling with a severe quadriceps strain that he suffered near the end of his innings while trying to turn a two into three for Patel.

Japen Patel – C-: USA’s selectors and management have clearly identified Patel as a player they want to develop, but they have demonstrated a bizarre method of doing it. The selectors could be heard in Florida in March talking up his bowling skills as a reason for his inclusion but Patel only bowled a total of seven overs in the tournament, taking two wickets against Oman. It was hard to classify him as a specialist batsman either. He didn’t bat at all against Nepal when USA used eight batsmen, came in twice at nine, once at eight, and opened once during USA’s five group games scratching together 46 runs at an average of 11.50. He eventually added another 34 in the third place playoff against Bermuda batting at number six.

Patel was a player without a clearly defined role. If you were from the opposition, you might be fooled into thinking he was playing for USA as a specialist fielder. Indeed he was an asset for USA in the field, taking two catches and also pulling off two runouts but also spilled two other chances. He was very sharp at attacking the ball and preventing singles from turning into twos while patrolling the boundary.

At the end of the day though, picking someone to bowl one over against Nepal and then not at all against Italy and Bermuda after being penciled in at number nine in the batting order would appear to be a mistaken selection. If Patel is to have a future with USA it would be with his batting, which has improved somewhat since he first made his USA debut in 2011 but still has miles to go to warrant a spot in a starting eleven.

Elmore Hutchinson – B-: Hutchinson had his best tour in a USA uniform and was USA’s best pace bowler on tour. He took eight wickets in the group stage and finished with 10 overall, second behind only McGarrell for USA. His best haul came against Italy, taking 3 for 44 in nine overs, but he also turned in solid figures against Uganda with 1 for 12 in five overs. Hutchinson had a nightmarish over at the start of Bermuda’s chase at the National Stadium, conceding four boundaries to Christopher Douglas as part of a 20-run frame, and was never given the ball again that day.

With the bat he finished with USA’s highest average on tour, scoring 52 runs while being dismissed only once, which says as much about his own batting abilities as it does about the impatience of those batting in front of him. He hit the winning single in a two-wicket victory over Oman and also finished 17 not out off 35 balls against Uganda, the third most runs scored and third most deliveries faced by a USA batsman that day, proving that it was possible to knock the ball around for singles for those with the patience to do so. Hutchinson also had a fairly safe pair of hands on the boundary with three catches while his only drop was a sharp caught and bowled chance. It’s a shame that his next 50-over ICC tournament might not be for another two years because he made solid strides in this event.

Muhammad Ghous – B+: This was one of the more impressive tournament performances of Ghous’ career in the men’s national team. Unfortunately it had to come in what was ultimately a third place finish. He was USA’s most economical bowler and finished with a 3.42 economy rate overall in the tournament. Along with McGarrell’s 10-over spell, the initial eight-over spell by Ghous of 0 for 21 in eight overs against Bermuda was the only thing keeping USA in that match.

Image (left) - Muhammad Ghous was USA's most economical bowler at 2013 WCL Division Three. [Courtesy: Peter Della Penna/DreamCricket.com]

He only took five wickets in the group stage but also had five drops off his bowling in the tournament and batsmen found him difficult to get away. His only subpar match was against Uganda and even then he went for under five runs per over, finishing with 1 for 37 in eight overs. His four wickets against Bermuda in the third place playoff took him to a tie with Allen and Howard Johnson for ninth all-time in the wickets column for USA in one-day cricket with 31. He turned 23 in April so even though USA failed to reach the 2014 ICC World Cup Qualifier, if they continue to play a 50-over ICC tournament every few years then Ghous may eventually become USA’s highest ever wicket-taker in the format.

Akeem Dodson – Incomplete: The reserve wicketkeeper on tour came into USA’s lineup for the final round-robin encounter against Bermuda and scored a half-century, USA’s high score on the day. He only came in as a result of an injury to Sushil Nadkarni, but USA might have been better served playing him earlier in the tour as a wicketkeeper to allow Taylor to play as a specialist batsman and ease his workload.

Naseer Jamali – Incomplete: Did not play in any of the five round-robin matches and took 1 for 21 in four overs against Bermuda in the third place playoff.

Danial Ahmed – Incomplete: Did not play in any of the five round-robin matches and took 0 for 38 in eight overs against Bermuda in the third place playoff.

Coming up in Part 3 – Outlook for USA’s 50-over future

[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: 2013 ICC WCL Division Three Report Card Part 1 - Team Grades

openingbat — Fri, 10 May 2013 19:18:00 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)

Part 1 - Team Grades

Batting – C+: USA had the tournament’s highest scorer after the group stage and overall in Steven Taylor. They also had eight of the 12 highest partnerships in the tournament, with two century stands and seven half-century stands overall. Unfortunately, USA’s batting lacked the overall consistency from the beginning to the end of the tournament as well as from the top to the bottom of the order.

The team scored one century and eight half-centuries, but also compiled eight ducks. The first wicket partnership of Taylor and Orlando Baker produced 125 runs on the first day, USA’s best ever partnership against Nepal, but after that the first wicket partnership averaged just 6.20 the rest of the tournament.

Image (left) - Steven Taylor acknowledges his USA teammates after reaching 100 against Nepal on the opening day of the tournament. [Courtesy: Peter Della Penna/DreamCricket.com]

USA’s best opening tandem in 50-over cricket is Taylor and Sushil Nadkarni. Although USA has had a long established strategy of slotting Nadkarni down the order against Nepal, there was no reason why he should not have been opening in the other matches he played. USA coach Thiru Kumaran stated after Nadkarni missed the crucial round-robin showdown against Bermuda that, “Sushil getting injured and not coming in, maybe that could have affected us a little bit. Being an important game, we didn’t have our best player, our best opener there.”

If Nadkarni is USA’s best player and best opener, it stands to reason that he should have been opening throughout the tournament but he never opened the batting once for USA and that hurt them in the end. The most surprising pair sent out to open was Japen Patel with Taylor against Uganda. Patel is a player who has shown some improvement with his batting and USA’s administration is eager for him to develop, but he has no business batting above Nadkarni under any circumstances, let alone open above him.

USA’s best partnerships of the tournament came for the third wicket where they averaged 71.83. Baker and Taylor produced USA’s best partnership from that spot in the third place game, 156 runs against Bermuda. USA also had half-century stands for the third wicket against Nepal (Taylor and Nadkarni), Italy (Massiah and Nadkarni) and against Bermuda in the last round-robin game (Baker and Dodson).

USA’s middle to lower order partnerships were strong when the pressure was off in the third place game against Bermuda and after a huge platform had been set against Nepal, but otherwise the segment of the game where Aditya Thyagarajan usually specializes in fell apart for USA in his absence. They averaged 14.17 for the fifth wicket and 6.83 for the sixth wicket in the tournament. USA put up a 93-run unbeaten stand for the seventh wicket against Nepal, but in the other four group games they averaged 12.50 for the seventh wicket. Thyagarajan’s ability to put together partnerships in the middle and lower order was sorely missed especially against Oman, Uganda and Bermuda.

Worst of all was the cardinal sin committed by not batting out all 50 overs against Uganda. It cost USA by the end of the tournament when the net run rate tiebreaker came into play. The team shot themselves in the foot multiple times in that match with foolish shots to get out and displayed an inability to rotate the strike. The game plan appeared to be for batsmen to slog their way out of trouble or get out doing it. Uganda scored 92 runs off ones and twos in that match while USA could only manage 36 runs off singles and doubles. No matter how difficult the pitch was in the second innings, that’s poor.

Overall, USA benefitted greatly from missed chances by their opponents. The tournament could have turned out much worse for USA had they not had such good fortune at the crease, although USA more than repaid it in the field against Bermuda. Opponents committed less drops than USA in the field, but USA punished their opponents more for each drop. USA's opponents conceded 14 missed chances during the group stage, but USA seized an extra 354 runs off the misses. Four times a USA batsman finished not out after being dropped. After the first time a batsman was dropped, USA averaged 44.25 extra runs. The most valuable second chance USA had during the group stage was when Oman goofed up a runout opportunity when Rashard Marshall was on 12. The bowler dislodged the bails without the ball in his hand and Marshall went on to win the match for USA by making 72 not out in a two-wicket win.

Bowling – B: USA’s bowling unit performed well for most of the tournament with their only glaring letdown coming during the Christopher Douglas ambush in the last group match against Bermuda. USA allowed just three half-centuries during the tournament, but allowed eight half-century stands during the event, including two in that crucial match against Bermuda. Neil McGarrell was tied for first atop the wickets list after the group stage with 12.

Image (right) - USA fast bowler Elmore Hutchinson on his approach to the crease. Hutchinson finished second on the team with 10 wickets in the tournament. [Courtesy: Peter Della Penna/DreamCricket.com]

USA’s opening bowlers were good at making early breakthroughs. The opposition averaged 13.50 for the first wicket and twice the opposition lost their first wicket without scoring. But the biggest opening stand came at the worst possible time for USA, 43 by Bermuda in their upset win on the last day of round-robin play. The opposition’s best partnerships were for the fourth wicket with an average stand of 37.00 including two-half century stands produced by Bermuda and Uganda. Each of those stands could have been curtailed had USA converted catching or runout opportunities provided to them in the field.

USA also lacked a killer instinct to wipe out the tail, something they have struggled with in the past, as Steve Massiah’s preferred method of captaincy is to let a match drag on rather than go for the kill. As a result, the ninth wicket stand for the opposition averaged 27.40. Noteworthy partnerships of 44 and 41 were produced by Nepal and Oman, something that turned out to be crucial by the end of the tournament when the net run rate tiebreaker came into play.

Fielding – F: USA missed 24 definite chances in the tournament (19 drops and five missed runouts), an average of four per game, while numerous other runout half-chances were missed in the field. Many teams have varied levels of batting and bowling skills, but the two things that every international side can do to narrow any gap against their opponent is to outwork them with fitness and fielding. USA always lags behind in both areas and it keeps their opponents in games.

USA had 19 missed chances during the group stage with the chances coming off 10 batsmen. On six occasions in the group stage, USA gave the same player multiple lives and on three of those occasions they dropped a player three times in one innings. After a batsman’s first missed chance, USA gave up an average of 24.33 extra runs to that player during the group stage, conceding a total of 219 runs overall after missed chances in their first five games. On average, USA conceded an extra 36.50 runs per game in the group stage on missed chances.

The costliest miss came against Nepal, when number seven batsman Sharad Vesawkar was dropped on 0, the first of three extra lives he was given, and made 72. USA’s fielding was horrendous against Bermuda, with six definite missed chances and many more half-chance runout opportunities lost. At 2012 ICC WCL Division Four in Malaysia, Singapore began a frantic chase on the last day against USA by stealing sharp singles at will in the first nine overs. A direct hit by Ryan Corns in the 10th over put Singapore on notice that they could no longer keep challenging USA in the field the way they had been and suddenly the pressure shifted onto Singapore as USA strangled the scoring rate.

All it would have taken was a single runout in the first 15-20 overs to put off Bermuda from stealing those sharp singles at the National Stadium on the final day of round-robin play in Hamilton. USA’s fielders did not score a direct hit the entire afternoon, whether or not a batsman had his bat across the line, and on multiple occasions fielders panicked under pressure by choosing the wrong end to throw to. Many other opportunities could have been converted with an accurate throw to wicketkeeper Akeem Dodson over the stumps. Instead, throws short-hopped into his feet or were wide enough of the stumps that he had to dive just to save them from turning into extra runs on overthrows. USA finally converted a run out in the 35th over, by which time Bermuda had run away with the match. Bermuda reached the target in the 45th.

Fitness – C-: USA’s fitness was good in the early stages of the tournament, but flagged as the tournament continued and was a contributing factor in their losses to Uganda and Bermuda. Taylor was well conditioned at the start of the tournament and his 162 against Nepal was chanceless.

However, he appeared to be weighed down by wicketkeeping on top of opening the batting as the event wore on. The team’s flagging fitness had a definite impact against Bermuda with so many sloppy fumbles, misfields, misfired throws and drops. It’s not as if Bermuda’s fitness was much better with two batsmen, Douglas and Stephen Outerbridge, struggling through their innings while cramping up. Yet they managed to find a way past it while USA was hampered.

USA will have plenty of time to work on their fitness though. By finishing out of the top two in Bermuda, their next 50-over ICC tournament won’t be for another two years.

Coming up in Part 2 - Player Grades

USA Cricket: Taylor's 97 delivers 30-run consolation win over Bermuda at 2013 WCL Division Three

openingbat — Mon, 06 May 2013 14:12:00 GMT

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

By Peter Della Penna in Bermuda (on Twitter)

DreamCricket.com's coverage on site from Bermuda at 2013 ICC World Cricket League Division Three is sponsored by New Inning Foundation.

Scorecard powered by New Inning Foundation I Match Commentary

USA opener Steven Taylor top scored with 97 as USA achieved a 30-run win over Bermuda in the third place playoff match at St. David’s Cricket Club in Bermuda on Sunday at 2013 ICC WCL Division Three. Taylor was named Man of the Match for his knock and finished as the tournament’s leading scorer with 274 runs in six games, 82 runs ahead of the next man on the list, Italy’s Peter Petricola with 192.

“If we could have done it yesterday that would have been really sweet,” USA coach Thiru Kumaran said after the match. “The thing about today’s match is if we win this it’s not really important but if you lose you go back really, really sad. So it was really important to win this game and guys played really well. They understood what they did wrong yesterday. They played a really good game today.”

USA won the toss and elected to bat making two changes to the side that lost on Saturday to Bermuda at the National Stadium. Danial Ahmed and Naseer Jamali both got their first games of the tournament in place of Rashard Marshall and the injured Neil McGarrell. Sushil Nadkarni also stayed out with a pinched nerve that has been causing numbness in his left leg. Meanwhile, two of Bermuda’s heroes from Saturday, Man of the Match Christopher Douglas and captain Stephen Outerbridge, sat out along with Lionel Cann in favor of Greg Maybury, Jason Anderson and Curt Stovell with Rodney Trott serving as the stand-in captain.

USA got off to a slow start initially with two wickets falling inside the first four overs. Akeem Dodson opened with Taylor but only lasted nine balls before he was caught for 4 flicking a full toss from the off-spin of Stovell to Tre Manders at deep square leg. Steve Massiah was caught behind for a golden duck after edging an attempted cut off Janeiro Tucker’s medium pace to make it back-to-back ducks against Bermuda for USA’s captain as the tourists slipped to 15 for 2.

Image (right) - Steven Taylor goes to sweep early in his innings of 97 vs. Bermuda. [Courtesy: Peter Della Penna/DreamCricket.com]

Taylor was joined by Orlando Baker and the pair produced USA’s largest partnership of the tournament, 156 runs for the third wicket. Taylor had earlier offered a chance on 5 and produced another one on 9, both driving to the catching fielder at short extra cover, but Taylor moved on in quick fashion to punish Bermuda’s bowlers early and often through the off side. He brought up his 50 in 48 balls with his seventh boundary, smashed through the covers in the 18th over which ended with USA on 89 for 2. The partnership ended with Taylor one shot away from his second century of the tournament when he pushed Stovell softly to Rodney Trott at cover in the circle to make it 171 for 3 in the 32nd.

“Steven, he got to a brilliant start in this tournament, 160 [sic 162 vs. Nepal],” Kumaran said. “He hit every ball that was there for him to hit, but the wickets didn’t play well. He continued playing the same game but he didn’t adapt to the different wickets. So today I think, after we spoke to him so many times, today I think he adapted to the wicket. He settled himself in. He paced his innings beautifully. After the innings, I spoke with him. This is how most of your innings will be. One in ten will be the kind of 160 [sic 162] he scored against Nepal. So hopefully he learns from this experience and can give us a consistent run all the time.”

Timroy Allen entered at five as USA approached the batting power play looking for a boost, particularly with Marshall not in the lineup, but he only managed 4 when he was bowled by Treadwell Gibbons after missing a swipe across the line to make it 193 for 4 in the 37th. Baker was out in the following over for 72, giving a return catch to Stovell, but not before becoming the third batsman to pass 1,000 runs in 50-over cricket for USA.

Image (left) - Orlando Baker runs between the wickets for USA. On Sunday, Baker joined Steve Massiah and Sushil Nadkarni as the only three USA players to score 1000 runs in 50-over cricket. [Courtesy: Peter Della Penna/DreamCricket.com]

Stovell claimed his fourth when Barrington Bartley was bowled for 1 to make it 199 for 6 in the 40th. USA managed to score just 12 runs for the loss of three wickets during their five-over batting power play between the 35th and 40th overs.

Elmore Hutchinson and Japen Patel got things back on track for USA with a 62-run partnership for the seventh wicket to take USA to a defendable total. It included 18 runs plundered off Tucker in the 48th over, including a six by Hutchinson over long off that nearly struck a man on a moped as he was driving out of the parking lot at the ground. Patel was dismissed with four balls to go in the innings for 34, slicing an edge to Jacobi Robinson at short third man for 34. Muhammad Ghous and Hutchinson each took a boundary and a single off the final four balls to take USA to their final total of 271 for 7. Stovell finished with 4 for 38 for Bermuda’s best figures on the day.

On Saturday, Douglas toyed with USA’s bowling unit while opening the innings for Bermuda but Stovell experienced something entirely different in his place at the top of the order, trapped LBW by Jamali on the first ball of the chase. His fellow opener Gibbons made 5 before he was bowled by Hutchinson going for a slog over midwicket to make it 22 for 2 in the sixth. Manders became the first scalp for Ghous on the day, edging to Massiah at slip for 18 to make it 44 for 3 in the 12th.

Bermuda had their first solid partnership of the day forged by Anderson and David Hemp as the two experienced batsmen added 57 for the fourth wicket. Hemp looked set for a long stay but he was bowled for 45 by Allen’s off-spin when he could not keep out a full length delivery to make it 101 for 4 in the 26th. Anderson went two overs later, caught for 30 by Dodson running out from behind the stumps after a bat pad chance ballooned into the air toward square leg.

Bermuda still had plenty of fight left though as Malachi Jones and Tucker added 61 for the sixth wicket in just 8.4 overs. Each man took on USA’s spinners, belting Allen and Bartley out of the attack before taking Hutchinson for 11 runs in the 36th over at the start of the power play. It was left to Ghous to break the stand, pinning Jones for 29 with a ball that kept low to make it 171 for 6 in the 37th. Ghous also claimed Tucker for 34 to end the 39th when the batsmen was bowled while backing away from the stumps trying to clear the off side field.

Hutchinson claimed Trott for 2 to make it 182 for 8 in the 40th. Yet Bermuda still refused to give in as Robinson entered at number nine and attacked Bartley for 18 in the 42nd. After being dropped off a skied chance to mid on earlier in the over, Robinson made USA pay with back-to-back sixes slogged over the leg side. His luck ran out when he gave Ghous the charge in the following over and was stumped for 31. The match ended in the 49th when Taylor’s off spin claimed Delray Rawlins LBW for 9 as Bermuda was bowled out for 241 in 48.4 overs. Ghous fell just short of his first five-wicket haul for USA at the senior level, taking 4 for 43 in his 10 overs to lead USA in the field.

In the 2013 WCL Division Three Championship match at the National Stadium in Hamilton, Nepal got revenge over Uganda in their rematch from the second day of the tournament, beating them by five wickets to claim the tournament title. Uganda won the toss and batted but could only muster 151 for 8 with Deusdedit Muhumuza’s 28 finishing as the top score. In response, Nepal tumbled to 30 for 3 but opener Pradeep Airee weathered the early storm to score 60 and put on 77 in partnership with Sharad Vesawkar for the fourth wicket. Vesawkar saw his side over the line with 50 not out as Nepal chased the target in 39.2 overs.

Oman ensured that Italy finished the tournament winless with a five-wicket win over the European side at Somerset Cricket Club in the fifth place playoff. Italy won the toss and batted first, posting 207. Captain Alessandro Bonora scored 42 while Oman speedster Munis Ansari took 4 for 72 and finished as the tournament’s leading wicket-taker after claiming 16 scalps in six matches. Oman completed their chase in 44.5 overs with Zeeshan Siddiqui making 64 to lead the way. Italy looked like they might pull off their first win with Oman at 148 for 5 in the 36th over, but Amir Ali and Sultan Ahmed added 60 in an unbeaten sixth wicket stand as Ali finished 42 not out in 39 balls.

Nepal and Uganda will now advance to the 2014 ICC World Cup Qualifier in New Zealand. USA’s next tour will take place in July when they head to Edmonton, Alberta for the 2013 Auty Cup. However, USA’s next 50-over tournament in ICC competition may not be until 2015 when the next Division Three is anticipated to take place.

USA Cricket: USACA announces 14-man squad for 2013 ICC WCL Division Three

openingbat — Sun, 31 Mar 2013 20:35:00 GMT

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USACA Media Release

The United States Cricket Association (USACA) today announced the National Men’s Squad to compete in the Pepsi ICC World Cricket League (WCL) Tournament. This competition is a qualification structure for the 2015 ICC 50 Over Cricket World Cup. Currently the USA team are in Division 3 of the WCL and determined to progress to the next phase of qualification in its upcoming tournament in Bermuda from April 28th – May 5th, 2013.

The US squad has been competing in a series of 50 over practice matches against Bermuda at the Lauderhill Stadium in Fort Lauderdale and trialed 21 players from all across the US and one player from Queensland in Australia. The group performed well winning two of the three matches gaining valuable match practice. The practice series also allowed USACA National Selectors to be able to view the players in competition mode and to select the final squad of 14. The final squad to represent the USA is;

Steven Taylor

Sushil Nadkarni

Steve Massiah

Rashard Marshall

Naseer Jamali

Japen Patel

Akeem Dodson

Timroy Allen

Orlando Baker

Barrington Bartley

Neil McGarrell

Danial Ahmed

Muhammad Ghous

Elmore Hutchinson

Team USA will be coached by Kumaran Thirunavukkarasu and will depart for Bermuda on April 25th. The US team will be led by season campaigner captained by Steve Messiah [sic] with Sushil Nadkarni vice-captain.

USACA National Chairman of Selectors Mr. Selwyn Caesar said, “Due to the importance of the ICC tournament in Bermuda, the National selectors wanted to ensure that the selection process was thorough and that players from all over America were given every opportunity to impress. I am delighted that USACA supported our request and provided 21 players with the opportunity to stake their claim to represent their country. The result is that we have a very well balanced team that is capable of winning in Bermuda and advancing to the next stage. I wish them well and know that they will give a good account of themselves”.

The other participating countries in the tournament are Bermuda, Oman, Italy, Nepal and Uganda. This is an extremely important tournament for US cricket as the top 2 teams from Bermuda will move up to WCL Division 2 and automatically qualify for ICC Global World Cup Qualifier to be held in New Zealand in 2014.

USA Cricket: Taylor's 127 not out caps record-breaking week, USA goes 8-0 at 2013 ICC Americas T20

openingbat — Sun, 24 Mar 2013 23:57:00 GMT

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

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

DreamCricket.com's coverage on site from Florida at the 2013 ICC Americas Division One Twenty20 tournament is sponsored by New Inning Foundation.

Scorecard powered by New Inning Foundation I Match Commentary

Records continued to tumble on Sunday as Steven Taylor’s 127 not out spearheaded a 77-run win over Cayman Islands to wrap up an undefeated week for USA at the 2013 ICC Americas Division One Twenty20 tournament at the Central Broward Regional Park in Lauderhill, Florida. USA finished 8-0 with the win while Cayman Islands dropped to 1-7 with the loss and as a result they have been relegated to ICC Americas Division Two.

Image (above) - USA finishes number one at the 2013 ICC Americas Division One Twenty20. [Courtesy: Peter Della Penna/DreamCricket.com]

“We really worked hard since we arrived in Florida and the effort that we come here and put out to go 8-0, it’s a big achievement for USACA,” said USA captain Orlando Baker.

Taylor’s second century in as many matches reset his own USA T20 record and took him to 413 runs overall on the week to put him atop the run charts for the tournament.

“It was a dream come true and I’m happy for my accomplishment,” Taylor said. “I had one goal, my main goal was to become the highest run getter…. It’s a big boost for me because we qualified to the UAE and I’d like to do good in the UAE.”

USA won the toss and elected to bat first with no changes made to the side that beat Bermuda on Friday as Elmore Hutchinson and Saqib Saleem nursed injuries while Timothy Surujbally sat out. Taylor and Akeem Dodson opened and set a USA record for the country’s largest partnership in T20 cricket. The pair added 155 in 15.1 overs, breaking the mark for highest first-wicket partnership previously held by Taylor and Aditya Mishra with 78 vs. Scotland at the 2012 ICC World Twenty20 Qualifier in Dubai and the highest partnership overall which was held by Aditya Thyagarajan and Baker with 99 not out in a seventh-wicket stand vs. Ireland at the 2010 ICC World Twenty20 Qualifier.

Unlike his innings in the first match against Cayman Islands when he scored 95, Taylor’s time at the crease on Sunday was a charmed one with two straightforward chances being put down. The first came when he was on 21 in the fifth over with the score 41 for 0. Taylor top edged a sweep against offspinner Kevin Bazil that went straight to Alessandro Morris at fine leg. Morris misjudged it initially and then reached up over his head while backpedalling before spilling the chance.

Taylor treated Cayman Islands medium pacer Troy Taylor with particular disdain, torching him for a six and three boundaries in the 10th over as he brought up his 50 off just 30 balls in the process. On the first ball of the 11th over, Dodson scooped Ramon Sealy over fine leg for a boundary to break Baker and Thyagarajan’s partnership record.

The partnership finally ended when Dodson missed a slog to midwicket against Kervin Ebanks and was bowled for 46. Baker came out to the middle and for the second match in a row was present when Taylor brought up three digits. Bermuda had another chance to deny him of three figures though just five balls after Dodson got out when Taylor sliced a full toss straight to point but the fielder grassed the chance at chest height.

Instead, Taylor reached his century three balls into the 17th over with a single to the leg side. He scored his second 50 in just 21 balls. Cayman Islands still had three more overs to feel Taylor’s wrath though. The teenager added another three fours and a six in the final two overs before he carried his bat off the field with 14 fours and six sixes at the end of his 62-ball knock. The total of 198 for 1 was a record score for USA in T20 cricket, eclipsing the 193 for 5 USA made against Bermuda in Sharjah at the 2012 ICC World Twenty20 Qualifier.

Image (above) - Man of the Match Steven Taylor after breaking his own USA record T20 score with 127 not out vs. Cayman Islands. [Courtesy: Peter Della Penna]

“There’s so many things that happened. There’s so many records that has break in this tournament, with the batters and partnerships.” Baker said. “But from a personal point of view, I’m very happy to lead this team, a young team. I get the respect from each and every player, from the managers right down to the guys. When I came here to Florida, I said I’m here on a mission as a captain and a senior player and the mission is complete.”

Cayman Islands never had a chance to chase the total despite a 60-run opening stand between Sealy and Zachary McLaughlin. Sealy was dismissed for 27 by Danial Ahmed in the 10th over and from there wickets fell regularly. McLaughlin was the first of three wickets taken by Ryan Corns, caught by Taylor at long on for a top score of 35. Corns had Ronald Ebanks stumped for 12 before Abhimanyu Rajp got into the act, removing Conroy Wright for 8 through the assistance of a brilliant catch on the boundary by Naseer Jamali to make it 100 for 4 in the 17th.

Corns capped off career best figures of 3 for 12 with the wicket of Kervin Ebanks, caught at deep midwicket by Japen Patel for 12 to make it 106 for 5 in the 18th. The last wicket to fall for Cayman Islands was that of Troy Taylor, stumped by Dodson for 1 in the 19th over, before Cayman Islands finished on 121 for 6.

In the day’s other match, Suriname stunned Bermuda by five wickets to take their record to 4-4 while Bermuda finished the tournament at 5-3 but still finished in second place to join USA as the two teams advancing from this tournament to the 2013 ICC World Twenty20 Qualifier in the UAE this November. Tre Manders and David Hemp both made 51 in Bermuda’s total of 144 for 4, but Suriname chased it down with two balls to spare aided by some shoddy fielding from Bermuda. Sauid Drepaul led Suriname with 42.

USA has an off day on Monday before a three-match 50-over series against Bermuda begins at Brian Piccolo Park beginning at 10 a.m. DreamCricket.com will have live coverage sponsored by New Inning Foundation for all three matches.

USA Cricket: Taylor creates history with USA's first T20 100, hosts move to 7-0 at 2013 ICC Americas T20

openingbat — Sat, 23 Mar 2013 07:31:00 GMT

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

By Peter Della Penna in Cooper City, Florida (on Twitter)

DreamCricket.com's coverage on site from Florida at the 2013 ICC Americas Division One Twenty20 tournament is sponsored by New Inning Foundation.

Scorecard vs. Bermuda I Scorecard vs. Bahamas I Match Commentary

USA batsman Steven Taylor became the first USA player to score a Twenty20 century on Friday afternoon at Brian Piccolo Park, notching 101 off 62 balls to lead USA to victory over Bermuda by 48 runs on Duckworth-Lewis Method at the 2013 ICC Americas Division One Twenty20 tournament. USA’s win was their seventh in seven matches this week and clinched both the tournament title for them as well as a spot in the 2013 ICC World Twenty20 Qualifier this November in the UAE.

Image (above) - Steven Taylor watches the ball sail over the rope for his sixth six to bring up USA's first T20 century. [Courtesy: Peter Della Penna/DreamCricket.com]

“We just came out with a positive approach,” Baker said. “We knew it was Bermuda and it’s our last big chance at them. We wanted to crush them. We didn’t want to just win, but win big. We went out and give it our best and we come out today with a big win again.”

In the process of reaching his ton, Taylor broke his own USA record score in T20 cricket which was 95 against Cayman Islands on the first day of this tournament. Taylor is now the leading scorer in the event with 286 runs, well ahead of Bahamas’ Marc Taylor who has 228.

“It felt good because I was very disappointed in myself not getting the first hundred,” Taylor said. “I ought to have two. I was glad to get my first hundred.”

USA won the toss and elected to bat first against Bermuda as Timothy Surujbally and Saqib Saleem sat out while Elmore Hutchinson nursed a groin strain sustained in morning warm-ups. The match began after an 11-minute rain delay before Taylor and Akeem Dodson opened for USA on a placid wicket. Play was halted briefly in the second over with USA on 21/0 for an 18-minute rain break before the match resumed.

Keeping their focus in the face of the spitting rain, Taylor and Dodson produced USA’s best first wicket partnership of the tournament, 68 runs in just 5.5 overs. Dodson finished with 23 off 15 balls before he was out caught on the cover boundary off the bowling of Janeiro Tucker. Taylor added 46 with Nicholas Standford and brought up his 50 in 34 balls during their stand. Standford scored 18 and was dismissed leg before missing a sweep against Jacobi Robinson. Barrington Bartley lasted just three balls, bowled for 4 by Malachi Jones in the 14th.

Image (right) - Taylor's innings started with rain drops falling around him as he took on Bermuda's bowling unit. [Courtesy: Peter Della Penna/DreamCricket.com]

Taylor was joined by Baker and the pair generated USA’s second half-century stand of the match, 50 runs for the fourth wicket to tie a fourth-wicket record partnership for USA in T20 cricket held by Baker and Aditya Mishra against Namibia in 2012. Baker worked at giving Taylor the strike and with four overs left, Taylor was 25 away from the magic three figures.

Taylor had the strike for all but one delivery of the 17th but could only manage a three off the first ball before dots piled up in the rest of the over. His frustration was evident as he attempted an unsuccessful reverse sweep on the final ball in an effort to get unstuck. However, a full toss from Maybury three balls into the 18th disappeared over midwicket and got the wheels turning again for Taylor. After a two and a three on the next two balls, he entered the 19th over on 89.

In USA’s first match of the tournament, Taylor was caught on the boundary for 95 against Cayman Islands as he tried to bring up a century with a six. This time he was the beneficiary of some good fortune when a chance at long off on 89 was spilled by the sub fielder Sam Robinson over the boundary line for a six to take Taylor to 95. Later in the over, he went for the glory shot and this time succeeded, striking his sixth six wide of long on to bring up triple figures in just 61 balls.

Taylor was finally dismissed on his next delivery, bowled by Jones to start the 20th, but not before he took USA to an easily defendable position of 184 for 4. Tucker was the only bowler who avoided Taylor’s wrath, finishing with 1 for 19 in four overs. Every other Bermuda bowler went for at least nine runs per over.

Image (left) - Taylor punches through the off side after the sun came out. [Courtesy: Peter Della Penna/DreamCricket.com]

The pitch stayed in good shape for the start of Bermuda’s chase. After a blip at the start of their innings with the loss of Lionel Cann for 10, Bermuda was ahead of the asking rate after four overs at 39 for 1. USA’s spinners worked to rein Bermuda back in. Ryan Corns got the momentum shifting back USA’s way with the first of his three wickets, David Hemp caught at deep midwicket for 2 to make it 40 for 2. Bartley foxed Dion Stovell to have the opener out stumped by Dodson for 26 to make it 52 for 3 after 6. Bermuda captain Stephen Outerbridge was caught at midwicket for 4 to give Corns his second. Corns then delivered the knockout blow, inducing a skied chance from Tucker to Japen Patel at long on and Bermuda’s top scorer was out for 27 to make it 79 for 5 in the 11th.

Abhimanyu Rajp took three wickets in five balls to accelerate the Bermuda tailspin. First to go in the sequence was Jones for 14, caught at deep midwicket by Jamali on the fourth ball of the 12th. Rajp opened the 14th over with wickets on back-to-back deliveries. Tre Manders top edged a pull to Corns at point before Rodney Trott slogged to Patel at long off on his first ball to make it 98 for 8. Rain returned in the middle of the 17th over and the umpires took the players off for the final time at the end of the frame. The match was unable to get restarted by the 6:30 p.m. cutoff time and with the par D/L score 161, USA was declared the winners by 48 runs.

“I’m very happy for all the guys,” USA captain Orlando Baker said. “We came here on a mission and we came through and supported each other from the day we arrived in Florida. As you can see, we’re 7-0 and we’re looking forward to the next game to go 8-0.”

Image (above) - Steven Taylor finishes a lofted straight drive to come within one shot of his century. [Courtesy: Peter Della Penna/DreamCricket.com]

Earlier in the day, USA brushed aside Bahamas with a 72-run win at the Central Broward Regional Park. USA won the toss and batted first, posting 187 for 4, their highest total of the week and second highest T20 score all-time for USA. Several players got starts but no one capitalized on them as Patel and Baker were co-top scorers with 32. The pair featured in USA’s highest partnership of the innings, 65 for the third wicket to set up USA’s big total.

Bahamas made a confident start to their chase as Marc Taylor and Julio Jemison constructed the largest partnership by any of USA’s opponents this tournament, 62 runs for the first wicket in 8.3 overs. Bartley was the one to make the breakthrough for USA, getting Taylor to send Jamali a catch at long off for 30. Ryan Tappin was dismissed for a duck by Danial Ahmed six balls later and from there the Bahamas innings became unglued.

Jemison eventually finished 52 not out but the only other player besides the openers to cross double digits was Rudolph Fox at number eight with 13. Steven Taylor set the tone for his charmed day by recording a double-wicket maiden in the 20th over, his first over bowled of the tournament, as Bahamas finished on 115 for 8. Bartley was named Man of the Match after following his 25 not out with 2 for 21.

In the day’s other matches, Bermuda defeated Cayman Islands in the morning match at Brian Piccolo Park by four wickets. Suriname stumbled in the afternoon game at Central Broward Regional Park against Bahamas, who rebounded from the loss to USA by notching a six-wicket win.

Bermuda sits in second place at 4-2 after six games and can clinch the second available spot from the Americas for the 2013 ICC World Twenty20 Qualifier with a win over Bahamas on Saturday morning. Suriname is still mathematically alive for second place at 2-4 but needs Bermuda to lose to the Bahamas on Saturday combined with Suriname wins over Cayman Islands on Saturday and Bermuda on Sunday. In addition to that, Suriname would also need to close the net run rate gap with Bermuda. Cayman Islands sit in last place at 1-5. Should they lose both their remaining games against Suriname and USA, they will be relegated to ICC Americas Division Two.

USA has Saturday off before their final game against Cayman Islands on Sunday. DreamCricket.com will have live coverage of the match, sponsored by New Inning Foundation, beginning at 9:30 a.m. on Sunday.

“We’re here on a mission,” Baker said. “We’re 7-0 and we still got one more to go. Definitely we’re looking to go 8-0. We’re not easing up on no one. We’re not taking any team for granted.”

USA Cricket: Bermuda held to 133, USA wins sloppy match by 3 wickets at 2013 ICC Americas T20

openingbat — Thu, 21 Mar 2013 01:00:00 GMT

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

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

DreamCricket.com's coverage on site from Florida at the 2013 ICC Americas Division One Twenty20 tournament is sponsored by New Inning Foundation.

Scorecard powered by New Inning Foundation I Match Commentary

USA fought back after a solid start by Bermuda to restrict the visitors to 133 for 8 before chasing down the runs with 11 balls to spare as USA won a mistake-riddled game by 3 wickets on Wednesday at the Central Broward Regional Park in Lauderhill, Florida at the 2013 ICC Americas Division One Twenty20 tournament. Malachi Jones of Bermuda was named Man of the Match for his spell of 3 for 22 as well as a catch and a runout in the field. USA remains undefeated at 4-0 after the win while Bermuda drops to 3-1 after the loss.

Bermuda, who defeated Cayman Islands by 46 runs earlier in the day after batting first and making 169 for 3 at the CBRP, won the toss against USA and elected to take first strike again. USA made two changes from their lineup against Bahamas as Danial Ahmed and Timothy Surujbally returned in place of Naseer Jamali and Saqib Saleem. Karan Ganesh remained out of the lineup with an injured right knee.

Bermuda produced 24 runs in the first 20 balls before captain Stephen Outerbridge was beaten in flight by a quicker ball and stumped off the bowling of Ahmed for 6. The visitors advanced to 53 when opener Curt Stovell was dismissed on the final ball of the eighth over for 35, bowled by USA captain Orlando Baker after swinging across the line one too many times.

Image (above) - USA captain Orlando Baker celebrates with a fist pump after removing Bermuda opener Curt Stovell for 35. [Courtesy: Peter Della Penna/DreamCricket.com]

Despite the departure of both openers, Bermuda remained in a solid position after 11 overs with the score on 76 for 2. Luck appeared to be on Bermuda’s side after heavy hitting Janeiro Tucker was dropped on back-to-back balls in the 12th over bowled by Abhimanyu Rajp.

However, the scales tipped back in USA’s favor when Ryan Corns struck on back-to-back balls in the 13th. David Hemp fell on the second ball of the frame for 26, caught on the boundary at long on by Japen Patel to make it 81 for 3. Bermuda made a critical error when Hemp and Tucker failed to cross while the ball was in the air so instead of Tucker facing the following delivery, the new batsman Lionel Cann had to start on strike. Cann swung over the top of a full toss from Corns and overbalanced after missing to allow Akeem Dodson the opportunity to complete his second stumping of the innings.

"I thought they got off to a flyer," USA batsman Nicholas Standford said. "We did well in the middle overs from 10 to 15 to bring back the score and I thought we did a good job."

The rest of the innings moved along in fits and starts, but without much momentum for Bermuda. Rodney Trott made 6 before he fell in the 17th, bowled by Ahmed to make it 103 for 5. Jones was dismissed for the same score in the 18th over courtesy of a juggling effort on the cover boundary by Barrington Bartley to give Elmore Hutchinson a wicket.

Tucker finished with a top score of 36, including 28 runs after the first chance he offered, before he was removed with seven balls to go in the innings thanks to an outstanding catch by Corns running in from the long on boundary to give Ahmed his third scalp. Jekon Edness was run out coming back for a second run on the final ball of the innings as Bermuda finished on 133 for 8. Ahmed bowled with the new ball before coming back in the death overs and finished with 3 for 26 to lead the USA bowling attack.

"I think I did okay," Ahmed said. "My performance was not at the level I thought it should be at. I bowled a few bad balls and I got hit but I kept bowling within the stumps and I think that helped me to get a few wickets."

USA got off to a rapid start in their chase thanks to 21 off 13 balls from Surujbally. He collected two boundaries off the first over bowled by Jones, then two more against Trott opening from the opposite end. Unfortunately his innings came to a quick end after he walked across his stumps and was struck dead in front playing across the line to give Jones his first wicket. Jones made it 27 for 2 when he castled Akeem Dodson on the next delivery to end the third over.

Meanwhile Steven Taylor was being denied the strike by Bermuda and as a result USA’s scoring rate was kept in check. In the first five overs, Taylor only faced seven legal deliveries and the frustration of not getting enough strike finally got the best of him when he was dismissed for 14 off just 14 balls at the start of the eighth over, caught on the long off boundary off Trott’s offspin. Baker perished three balls later for 12, runout after responding to Standford’s call for a sharp run.

Standford managed to make amends though in partnership with Corns. With dark clouds hovering overhead and the possibility of Duckworth-Lewis becoming a factor if rain intervened, the pair kept their cool to establish a new fifth-wicket record stand for USA in T20 cricket, adding 46 runs across 7.2 overs. The previous best fifth-wicket partnership for USA in T20 cricket was a 39-run partnership between Quasen Alfred and Charan Singh against Afghanistan in Toronto in 2011.

"When Ryan came to the crease we were on even keel with the D/L par score," Standford said. "So we just wanted to keep ahead of that as the rain was about to come down."

Just when it appeared the pair had settled for good and would take USA over the line, Corns fell on the final ball of the 15th over for 19 when he holed out to Jones at long on off the bowling of seamer Greg Maybury to make it 98 for 5. With USA needing 36 off the remaining 30 balls for victory, Standford kept the pressure on Bermuda’s bowlers with a four and a six off consecutive deliveries from spin bowler Samuel Robinson to end the 16th. He ultimately fell three balls into the 17th for USA’s top score of 36, bowled by a Jones yorker to make it 118 for 6.

Patel produced a very efficient innings at number seven, first in tandem with Standford and then with Bartley to get USA closer to a win. Patel scored off his first 10 deliveries and finished with 18 in 12 balls before he gave Robinson a return catch on the last ball of the 18th with USA one shot away from winning. The host side scored the winning runs on the very next ball when Bartley struck a delivery that was misfielded by Maybury on the boundary at long on to give USA a match-winning four.

Suriname swept a pair of matches at Brian Piccolo Park on Wednesday, defeating Bahamas by 20 runs in a low scoring match before following it up with a narrow win over Cayman Islands by 7 runs on Duckworth-Lewis. Suriname made 121 for 9 and restricted Bahamas to 101 for 8 in the morning match to secure their first win of the tournament. In the afternoon, Suriname batted first again and made 120 for 8. Cayman Islands advanced to 96 for 4 after 17 overs when bad weather curtailed play with Cayman Islands marginally behind the D/L par score. The results mean that after the first round of double-round robin play, USA sits in first place at 4-0, Bermuda in second at 3-1, Suriname in third at 2-2, Cayman Islands in fourth at 1-3 and Bahamas in last place at 0-4.

USA returns to the Central Broward Regional Park on Thursday afternoon when they take on Suriname at 3 p.m. EST DreamCricket.com’s live tournament coverage, sponsored by New Inning Foundation, will get underway at 2:30 p.m. EST.

USA Cricket: Bowlers put Bahamas on the mat before Corns career high takes USA to 8-wicket win

openingbat — Wed, 20 Mar 2013 00:03:00 GMT

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

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

DreamCricket.com's coverage on site from Florida at the 2013 ICC Americas Division One Twenty20 tournament is sponsored by New Inning Foundation.

Scorecard powered by New Inning Foundation I Match Commentary

A tidy bowling effort by USA was backed up by a career best effort with the bat from Ryan Corns as the host side defeated Bahamas by 8 wickets on Tuesday in the 2013 ICC Americas Division One Twenty20 tournament at the Central Broward Regional Park in Lauderhill, Florida. USA reached the target of 114 with 33 balls to spare and the Red, White and Blue now stands at 3-0 in the tournament with the win while Bahamas remains winless at 0-3.

Corns opened USA’s chase and finished unbeaten on 61, his highest score for USA at the senior level. He also helped establish a USA record partnership for the third wicket in T20 cricket by adding an unbeaten 80-run stand with USA captain Orlando Baker.

“Just before we went on the field to bowl, the coach informed me that I would be opening the batting so I was very excited about the opportunity and I wanted to make full use of it,” Corns said. “I had nerves, but they were more good nerves than bad nerves and I just kept telling myself that this is your opportunity, make use of it and thankfully I did.”

USA made three changes to the starting lineup from their previous match against Bahamas, leaving out Karan Ganesh, Timothy Surujbally and Danial Ahmed in favor of Abhimanyu Rajp, Naseer Jamali and Saqib Saleem. Bahamas won the toss and elected to bat first. While the decision was a positive one in the face of a much stronger opponent, Bahamas displayed a conservative approach throughout their innings.

Bahamas inched along to 39 for 3 in 10 overs as Jamali and Barrington Bartley did the early damage with the ball for USA. Jamali cleaned up Marc Taylor four balls into the match for 1 while Bartley claimed Julio Jemison for 15 before striking Whitcliff Atkinson on the toe to remove him leg before without scoring.

Ryan Tappin made a patient 26 off 39 balls at number three before he lost his cool and slogged Rajp to Corns at midwicket to make it 59 for 4 in the 14th. Bahamas lost their fifth wicket three runs later when captain Gregory Taylor swept against the legspin of Saleem and was caught at deep midwicket by Japen Patel for 2.

Bahamas’ most productive partnership of the match was a sixth-wicket stand of 36 runs between Jonathan Barry and 18-year-old Turan Brown. Barry was eventually bowled by Baker for 29. Brown’s innings was short and sweet, clubbing three sixes including two in the final over off Elmore Hutchinson to finish with 31 in 16 balls before he was run out on the last ball of the innings as Bahamas finished on 113 for 7 in 20. Bartley had USA’s best figures with 2 for 9 in three overs.

Corns joined Steven Taylor for the start of USA’s chase and the pair added a breezy 24 before Taylor was unlucky to be run out for 12. Corns drove a full delivery from left -arm seamer Alfred Peters back down the pitch and the bowler deflected the ball onto the stumps in his follow through with Taylor two yards out of his crease. Akeem Dodson lasted five balls for his 9 before he was caught at midwicket top edging a pull against medium pacer Dereck Gittens to make it 34 for 2 after four overs.

Baker joined Corns and the pair methodically moved the scoring rate along before Corns targeted left-arm spinner Narendra Ekanayake in the 12th over. Corns started the over by stroking a six over long off, then followed it up by paddling a four to fine leg. After taking a single on the third ball, Corns got back on strike for the final ball of the over and brought his 50 up in 35 balls with his second six straight down the ground.

Image (above) - Ryan Corns hits left-arm spinner Narendra Ekanayake down the ground for his fourth boundary to move to 28 while USA captain Orlando Baker takes evasive action at the non-striker's end. [Courtesy: Peter Della Penna/DreamCricket.com]

“We don’t get to bat that often, but the times that we have batted together we’ve always had some sort of a good partnership,” Corns said of his partnership with Baker. “We understand each other very well. I understand his game and vice versa he understands my game. So when that happens you’re bound to get a good partnership.”

Corns and Baker each hit boundaries in a 12-run 14th to take USA within a boundary of victory. After three singles off the first three balls of the 15th, the winning run came courtesy of a chest height no ball to Corns. Gittens finished with 1 for 30 as the only wicket taker on the day for Bahamas.

USA’s opponent on Wednesday will be Bermuda, who survived a nervy match with Suriname before prevailing by 6 wickets. Suriname advanced to 80 for 2 in the 12th over and looked set for a minimum of 150 before the Bermuda bowling unit reined them in. Shazaam Ramjohn finished with 42 off 25 at number three but the innings lost momentum with his dismissal three balls into the 12th and Suriname eventually finished on 138 for 8.

Bermuda looked shaky at 91 for 4 when Lionel Cann was pinned with a yorker on the first ball of the 14th over, but Janeiro Tucker eased Bermuda’s nerves with three sixes in the 18th over before hitting another in the 19th to finish the match with nine balls remaining. Tucker walked off unbeaten on 65 in 30 balls with four boundaries and six sixes.

DreamCricket.com’s live coverage, sponsored by New Inning Foundation, of the 2013 ICC Americas Division One Twenty20 continues on Wednesday at 2:30 p.m. EST as USA looks to maintain their undefeated record against Bermuda. First ball is scheduled to be bowled at 3 p.m. EST.

USA Cricket: Baker looks forward to captaincy challenge at 2013 ICC Americas Division One T20

openingbat — Wed, 13 Mar 2013 16:44:00 GMT

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

By Peter Della Penna (on Twitter)

Veteran allrounder Orlando Baker says he’s ready for the opportunity to captain a young USA side at the 2013 ICC Americas Division One Twenty20 tournament, which begins next Monday in Lauderhill, Florida at the Central Broward Regional Park. USA kicks off the tournament against Suriname at 10 a.m. on March 18 and Baker says he’s ready to take on more responsibility, not just as a captain but by bringing his talents to the fore with bat and ball as well.

“It’s a good feeling. It’s always a pleasure when you’re captaining your country so it’s an honor,” Baker told DreamCricket.com. “I’m looking forward to leading from the front. I’ve been around for a while now and I know a lot rests on my shoulders. I’m looking forward to take this opportunity to really showcase my talent and show what I can do. It’s always a challenge but I’m just going to go ahead and put my right foot forward and keep working hard.”

Image (right) - In 2010, Orlando Baker combined with Aditya Thyagarajan to produce the highest partnership for USA in Twenty20 matches, an unbroken 99-run stand for the seventh wicket against Ireland in Abu Dhabi. [Courtesy: Daniela Zaharia/USACA]

Baker previously captained USA in 2008 at the West Indies Cricket Board Cup 50-over tournament in Guyana. USA failed to win a game in that event, but the tournament provided opportunities for non-first choice players to get exposure such as Timroy Allen who made his USA debut against Barbados and took 1 for 26 in eight overs. Baker says he wants the players to enjoy themselves on the field and not feel pressure but at the same time they’ll need to adjust quickly to the demands of an ICC qualifying tournament that features eight games in seven days for USA.

“As you know, Twenty20 cricket is not a game that you have too much time,” Baker said. “I think new guys who are coming in, they have to learn pretty fast. There’s a few senior players – myself, Elmore [Hutchinson], [Barrington] Bartley comes back into the team – and then you have Ryan Corns there, Japen Patel, guys who have been around. I think myself and those guys have to really carry the bulk of the work in this tournament. A lot is gonna depend on me as a senior player and the captain but maybe one or two guys will rise to the occasion.”

With several first choice players missing out on this tournament in order to have enough time off work for 2013 ICC World Cricket League Division Three next month in Bermuda, USA’s Twenty20 squad includes a few fresh faces competing in an ICC tourney for the first time and one in which their endurance and conditioning will be severely tested. The top two teams out of Bahamas, Bermuda, Cayman Islands, Suriname and USA will advance to the 2013 ICC World Twenty20 Qualifier in the UAE. Only six out of this 14-man squad were part of the 2012 ICC World Twenty20 Qualifier squad that played a grueling nine matches in 11 days in the UAE.

The fast bowling department looks particularly thin for USA without Allen and Usman Shuja. With only 14 caps, Hutchinson is the senior fast bowler in the squad and as a result, fellow left-arm seamer Naseer Jamali is expected to get plenty of opportunities after debuting in The Auty Cup last November. However, there are no specialist pacemen besides them in a spin heavy bowling unit.

On the batting side, Steven Taylor is the only man in the squad who has been a significant contributor with the bat over the past year and the absence of Sushil Nadkarni, USA’s leading scorer from 2012, creates a big hole to fill. Rather than be worried about the overall inexperience, Baker says this is a chance for younger players to push for a regular spot and increase the level of competition within the national team.

Image (left) - Steven Taylor will be looking for a good foil at the top of the order in the absence of Sushil Nadkarni. [Courtesy: Peter Della Penna/DreamCricket.com]

“There’s a lot of guys there,” Baker said. “You can’t really say someone will fill Sushil’s role. It’s just that somebody has to open with Steven. There’s a lot of guys, Timmy [Surujbally] who has come in as an opener. You have Ryan [Corns] who has batted up the order for the US before. You have young [Nicholas] Standford, even myself. When we get to Florida with Robin [Singh] the coach and the management staff, I think we’ll get to that point when we get there.”

“I’m not worried about the depth,” Baker said. “I think guys have been waiting for the opportunity. I’m looking forward to guys standing up and try and grab the opportunity, try and push the players in the squad for Bermuda. That’s the challenge these guys have ahead. They have to come here and perform. They’ve been given a chance. A lot of people have been calling for younger guys in the US team. You look at this team and it’s a really young team. This is their chance and they have the opportunity to showcase themselves and push their claims.”

The format of the ICC Americas tournament was a single round-robin event in 2011, but that has been revised in the region as a result of Canada not participating in this year’s tournament due to automatic qualification for the World Twenty20 Qualifier after a top-six finish in the same event last year. Instead of a six-team ICC Americas event with everyone playing each other once across six days, this year will see five teams all playing each other twice for a total of eight matches per team crammed into seven days. Although it will be taxing, Baker says there is a silver lining with more players getting more chances to show their stuff on the field and have as much time as possible out in the middle.

“It’s gonna be really tough. There’s going to be a lot of cricket. I think the players themselves have gotta take care of themselves,” Baker said. “If you look back at the [2012] tournament in Dubai, it was really tough. We’ve been getting a program. Robin sent out a program over the last couple of months for guys to be working on physically so I’m expecting everyone to be ready come March 17. I welcome the opportunity. It’s a challenge but I welcome the opportunity to play more games. At least you get to see more players. Players get more opportunities so I welcome the challenge. It’ll be tough but as I said if each individual player is following the training program, the physical program, they should be ready come March 17.”

“I’m not feeling pressure. I’ve played a lot of cricket over the years for the US and outside of the US before I became a member of the team. I’m just looking forward to the challenge. I like challenges. It’s something that I always look up to. I think when I have challenges, that’s when I get the best out of me. I’m looking forward to it. I’m not worried about pressure or worried about senior guys who aren’t there because at the end of the day we all have to perform.”

DreamCricket.com will have live coverage for all of USA’s matches at the 2013 ICC Americas Division One Twenty20 tournament beginning with the opening contest on Monday, March 18 against Suriname. Coverage begins at 9:30 a.m. EST with the first ball scheduled to be sent down at 10 a.m.

USA Cricket: Thyagarajan century headlines trial matches at 2012 National Championship in Florida

openingbat — Mon, 12 Nov 2012 18:27:00 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)

USA veteran batsman Aditya Thyagarajan produced the top score at this weekend’s 2012 USACA National Championship in Florida as his 109 not out led the Eastern Conference to a 40-run win over the Western Conference on Sunday during a 50-over trial match at Brian Piccolo Park in Cooper City, Florida. The East posted 256 for 4 before bowling out the West for 216 in the 47th over.

The USACA National Championship wasn’t played in the traditional sense compared to previous years. Rather than have teams selected by their respective regions to compete in a round-robin super league event, this edition saw players hand-picked by USACA representing the “East” and “West” shuffle between rosters during the weekend in order to give players as many opportunities as possible to demonstrate their skill level against national talent. Thyagarajan, based in California, played for the West in a Twenty20 trial match on Saturday while one player, Saqib Saleem, batted and bowled within the same innings in the 50-over match on Sunday.

Thyagarajan entered at number five in the sixth over with the score at 19 for 2. Timothy Surujbally had retired hurt while Steven Taylor and Steve Massiah had been dismissed for 6 and 1 respectively after the East won the toss and elected to bat first. Like he has done on many occasions with the national team, Thyagarajan stabilized his team’s innings by building a 76-run stand with Ravi Timbawala, who made 43 in 67 balls.

Image (right) - Aditya Thyagarajan file photo in action against Denmark at 2012 ICC WCL Division Four in September. [Courtesy: Peter Della Penna/DreamCricket.com]

After Timbawala fell in the 24th over to Timil Patel, Thyagarajan teamed with Karan Ganesh to add 87 runs for the fourth wicket. Ganesh was caught behind off Japen Patel for 38 following which Thyagarajan added 74 more runs in an unbroken fifth wicket partnership with Adil Bhatti. Bhatti finished 35 not out off 28 balls while Thyagarajan’s unbeaten 109 came off 137 balls with eight fours and a six as the East finished on 256 for 4.

In addition to both Patels, Naseer Jamali and Usman Shuja claimed the other two wickets for the West. Shuja finished with 1 for 18 off five while Jamali had 1 for 29 off seven including a maiden. Ten bowlers were used in the innings by the West.

In reply, the West had several players get starts but with the exception of Orlando Baker, no one was able to turn in a significant score. William Perkins, the Trinidad & Tobago batsman who played one T20 International for the West Indies in 2008, made 20 in 19 balls before departing in the sixth over to the left-arm spin of Danial Ahmed. Japen Patel and Baker added 79 for the second wicket to give the West a solid platform to chase the target of 257, but the West was unable to accelerate and wound up losing by a comfortable margin.

Japen Patel made 40 off 74 balls before being dismissed by Saleem to make it 104 for 2 in the 24th. Timil Patel entered at number four and scored 40 off 54 balls but was trapped LBW by medium pacer Hammad Shahid to make it 173 for 3 in the 38th. Baker retired out on 58 off 80 balls at the end of the over with the score on 174, leaving the West needing 83 runs to win in 12 overs with Sushil Nadkarni and Saleem fresh at the crease.

With nine overs to go, the West needed 69 to win. It was then that Ganesh derailed the West’s chances of chasing the runs by taking three wickets in four balls. Ganesh bowled Nadkarni for 5 off the first ball of the 42nd. Two balls later he had Saami Siddiqui caught by Steven Taylor for a duck. He then followed it up by trapping Abhimanyu Rajp leg before to put himself on a hat-trick as the West slumped to 188 for 7.

Shuja was dimissed by Junaid Rasheed for 8, which was sandwiched between the dismissals of Saleem and Adrian Gordon by Bhatti as the West finished all out for 216 in 46.4 overs. Ganesh took 3 for 6 in two overs while Bhatti claimed 2 for 27 in 6.4 overs. Ahmed finished with solid figures of 1 for 32 in 10 overs including a maiden opening the bowling with Elmore Hutchinson, who finished with 0 for 26 in seven overs with two maidens.

In a Twenty20 match trial match on Saturday, Ahmed took 3 for 12 in four overs with a maiden as the East restricted the West to 100 for 7 in 20 overs before scoring 146 for 7 in 20 overs, batting out their full quota after passing the small target of 101. Ahmed claimed the big scalps of Thyagarajan and Nadkarni as well as Timil Patel to finish with the best bowling figures on the day. Nadkarni’s 30 off 34 balls was the high score in the first innings with 17 extras contributing to the total. Adil Bhatti claimed 2 for 12 in four overs while the other two wickets were a result of runouts.

In the East innings, Taylor was dismissed in the second over without scoring for an early setback. Perkins and Surujbally responded by blitzing the Western bowling unit for 77 runs in just 5.4 overs before both batsmen retired at the end of the seventh over with the score on 86. Perkins tallied 48 off 18 balls with three boundaries and five sixes while Surujbally walked off after scoring 35 off 22 balls including five fours and a six. Japen Patel had the next best contribution with 22 off 28 balls. Leg-spinner Saleem finished with 2 for 22 in four overs, claiming the wickets of Japen Patel and Andy Mohammed. Shahid, Hutchinson and Baker took a wicket each.

USA Cricket: 2012 ICC WCL Division Four Report Card Part 3 -Outlook for 2013 ICC WCL Division Three

openingbat — Mon, 24 Sep 2012 09:56:00 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)

Click here for Part 1 - Team Grades

Click here for Part 2 - Player Grades

Outlook for 2013 ICC World Cricket League Division Three

Find a committed coach for USA

Next year’s ICC WCL Division Three in Bermuda is scheduled for April 28-May 5, right smack in the middle of the IPL. This means that Robin Singh will not be available, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing. Despite being paid a fee rumored to be five figures per tournament to chaperone USA’s players, the results have been mostly unconvincing for Singh in his efforts at women’s, junior and senior level for USA. Most alarmingly, USA’s fielding has been dreadful at all three levels when he has been in charge despite a reputation staked as a player on fielding excellence.

Outside of a handful of days spent with the USA U-19 team in Florida in February and July 2011, Singh has not spent any time on U.S. soil doing any sort of coaching with USA’s teams. For Division Four, he flew into Malaysia the night before the first match and somehow thought all he had to do was snap his fingers to make magic happen. If Singh doesn’t fly into the Mumbai Indians camp on the night before their first match in the IPL to begin coaching them, why should it be acceptable for him to do the same for the USA and expect the team to respond positively?

Image (right) - Robin Singh most likely will not be around to coach USA at 2013 ICC WCL Division Three due to IPL commitments, not that it will adversely affect USA on the field. [Courtesy: Peter Della Penna/DreamCricket.com]

Former USA coach Clayton Lambert may not have been the best tactician, but he knew the strengths, weaknesses and capabilities of all the players he went on tour with because he spent considerable time around the USA at tournaments and training/selection camps to get familiar with the players he’d be working with on tour in order to strategize the best possible batting lineups and bowling combinations. Singh has not devoted any time in the USA to get familiar with USA’s senior players and it is clear that it has negatively impacted the team based on the disjointed results USA has had under his stewardship.

Speaking on behalf of the team, vice-captain Sushil Nadkarni said that USA approached the final match against Nepal by picking what was felt to be the lineup that gave USA the best chance at winning that day rather than giving younger players an opportunity to gain experience against Nepal’s bowling attack in a match where promotion and relegation wasn’t at stake. If USA was honestly going all out for a win that day, there is no reasonable explanation for why Abhimanyu Rajp batted at number three other than to say that the man in charge of setting the batting order, Singh, didn’t have a solid grasp on the strengths and weaknesses of the players who were a part of USA’s squad on tour.

Shifting Timroy Allen up, down and around the batting order cost the team badly in the first game against Nepal. Shifting Aditya Thyagarajan, Aditya Mishra and Orlando Baker all over the place also worked to unsettle and undermine their considerable talents. Players must have defined roles throughout the tournament so they can tailor their games to maximize their output for the team.

USA needs to find a coach, whether currently in the USA or abroad, who is willing to work with the players locally in the USA in camps ahead of Division Three in order to form better plans and figure out the best combinations before the first game begins on April 28, not in the middle of the tournament as was the case at the 2012 ICC World Twenty20 Qualifier in the UAE and at times during 2012 ICC WCL Division Four in Malaysia. Asif Mujtaba and Kumaran Thiru, who served separately as assistant coaches for USA in the UAE and Malaysia respectively during USA's two overseas tours this year, are both based in Texas and appear to be qualified coaching candidates with international cricket experience who would be useful if given an opportunity to assume the head coach role for USA.

Better individual accountability for fitness

USA’s players may struggle from tournament to tournament with team chemistry because the players do not play with each other year-round, but there is no excuse for players to show up unfit because they haven’t been playing with other national team players year-round. Fitness is an individual responsibility. Players in California are not responsible for running sprints on behalf of players in Texas or New York and vice versa.

Other teams at the Associate level face the same struggles that USA’s players do as amateurs in terms of getting enough time away from work to dedicate to their games. However, USA’s Associate level opponents are almost always head and shoulders above USA when it comes to their fitness levels despite being fellow amateurs. The fact that this tournament was played during the USA season means that not only were the majority of USA’s players unfit when they showed up for national team duty, it’s highly probable that they are unfit for club cricket duty on a weekly basis as well.

Instead of being the number one priority for USA’s players, it appears that for many of them fitness is something that is addressed if they get around to it. USA may have gotten away with substandard in Division Four, but that will not be the case in Division Three. Anyone who doubts this only needs to check the DreamCricket.com Report Card for 2010 ICC WCL Division Three. USA’s overall fitness contributed heavily to their downfall in the round-robin match against Denmark in Hong Kong and consequently led to them getting relegated.

Image (right) - Sushil Nadkarni's fitness on tour in Malaysia was top notch, but the rest of his teammates need to pick up the slack or else finishing in the top two for Division Three in Bermuda may be difficult. [Courtesy: Peter Della Penna/DreamCricket.com]

USA went 3-0 on the first day of back-to-back matches in Malaysia and 0-3 on the second day. A similar effort in Bermuda will definitely put USA behind Nepal and most likely put USA behind Italy as well to finish in third place and short of the 2014 ICC World Cup Qualifier in New Zealand. Quite simply, if USA puts in a similar effort in Bermuda to the one they produced in Malaysia, both individually and as a team, they will finish out of the top two and the consequences will be severe.

An eye to the future

Attempting to qualify for the 2015 ICC World Cup may be the last hurrah for many of USA’s players. Finishing in the top two in Bermuda and then the top two again at the ICC World Cup Qualifier in New Zealand would be a massive achievement and result in clinching a spot at the 2015 ICC World Cup. However, even finishing in the top six at the qualifier would be huge because it would mean that USA would be able to participate in the next cycle of the ICC Intercontinental Cup.

Being in the Intercontinental Cup would not only provide increased funding from the ICC, but would present tremendously valuable opportunities for some of USA’s younger players to gain experience and develop their skills in multi-day cricket on turf wickets against other top-tier Associates without the pressure of promotion and relegation being at stake. Having a bigger and more consistent schedule of matches for USA’s players to participate in might also open the door for several players to be given central contracts for the first time, a major step toward professionalizing the game in the USA.

Conversely, if USA does not achieve these things and with participation virtually non-existent for Associates in a 10-team 2019 ICC World Cup, it is conceivable that many of USA’s senior players would step aside if they failed to reach the 2014 ICC World Cup Qualifier and/or the 2015 ICC World Cup in order to allow a younger nucleus to form and focus on qualification for the next several ICC World Twenty20 events which are due to have 16 teams in 2014 and 2016.

USA Cricket: 2012 ICC WCL Division Four Report Card Part 2 - Player Grades

openingbat — Mon, 17 Sep 2012 15:35:00 GMT

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

By Peter Della Penna (on Twitter)

Click here for Part 1 - Team Grades

Player Grades

Sushil Nadkarni – A-: USA’s vice-captain finished as the leading scorer at the tournament with 238 runs at 47.60 and two half-centuries. His century stand with Steven Taylor to open the tournament against the host side set the tone for a solid event. He top scored for USA in three of the five games he played. His highest score, and the highest score at the event by a USA player, was his 84 in the group game against Nepal. If he had been able to bat to the end to score a century and take the team to victory, it would have been perhaps his greatest knock in a USA uniform, but he fell just short thanks to a spectacular catch by Binod Das at backward point.

Nadkarni’s fitness has waxed and waned over the last couple of years depending on the tournament. It was definitely waxing at this event where he looked much slimmer than he was at the ICC World Twenty20 Qualifier in March. Nadkarni and Timroy Allen were the only USA players who never looked tired while at the crease. He was a spritely fielder inside the circle as well, regularly flinging his body along the turf to save runs.

Image (right) - Sushil Nadkarni completes a cut shot against Malaysia. Nadkarni finished as USA's leading scorer for the second tour in a row. [Courtesy: Peter Della Penna/DreamCricket.com]

Steven Taylor – B+: The youngest player in the squad may have taken over the mantle from Nadkarni as USA’s most intimidating batsman during this tournament. He finished second overall in the runs list behind Nadkarni with 216 at an average of 36.00 and a strike rate of 104.85. He scored half-centuries against Malaysia and Singapore. The only game he really failed to get going was in the final match against Nepal where he made just 11.

While he had several explosive starts, Taylor somehow managed to get out just when he appeared set to destroy the opposition. He looked tired toward the end of the tournament, particularly in the ways he got out against Nepal so fitness may be something he should focus on, particularly if he is committed to keeping wicket. He finished with six catches and a stumping, but also missed two stumping chances.

Steve Massiah – C-: The reinstalled captain struggled to get going on a day when batting looked easy for everyone else against Malaysia, then looked even more out of sorts against spin versus Denmark. He made his highest score of the tournament against Nepal with 41 coming in at number five, but the batting order was mangled for that match to accommodate him after his early troubles against spin. USA wound up paying for it by the end of the match despite an 89-run stand between him and Nadkarni that put the team on the brink of victory. He finished as USA’s fourth highest scorer on the week with 121 runs at 24.20, but generally did less with more opportunities at his disposal than other batsmen.

In the past, Massiah has typically been one of USA’s most reliable fielders, both on the ground and in the catching department. At this tournament though, he looked a step behind, grassing three catches against Nepal and missing a golden opportunity for a run out early against Denmark. He was also responsible for a slow over rate against Denmark that prevented USA from using some of their more desired options later in the innings though he did well leading the side during a hectic second innings against Singapore by going to spin within a few overs after play resumed following a rain delay.

Aditya Thyagarajan – C-: USA’s leading scorer in 2010 had a lukewarm return from injury at this tournament. He top scored in the team’s warm-up match win over Denmark with 48 coming in at number four, but then managed just 35 runs in four innings during the live matches. He didn’t seem to respond well after being shuffled around the batting order to accommodate others, batting at three different positions for his four innings.

Image (left) - Aditya Thyagarajan in action against Denmark at the Selangor Turf Club. Thyagarajan had a rough return to the national team after missing more than a year due to injury, making 35 runs in four innings. [Courtesy: Peter Della Penna/DreamCricket.com]

He played for the team against Malaysia, going to slog after entering with six overs to go and wound up getting out for 2. He failed against Denmark, then got out cheaply again in a situation that appeared tailor-made for him with 10 overs to go against Nepal. His 21 against Singapore might not look special on paper, but it was part of a vital 59-run stand, providing the anchor at one end to allow Allen to swing away at the other. Thyagarajan also gets credit for his fielding. In a team full of butterfingers, he held on to three solid catches running in from the boundary and never dropped a chance.

Aditya Mishra – C-: Mishra was one of USA’s best batsmen in March at the ICC World Twenty20 Qualifier, but overall in this event he was inconsistent and mixed two decent innings with two failures. He provided a solid late boost against Malaysia scoring 25 off 14 balls and along with Taylor tried to score as quickly as possible against Tanzania to lift the team’s net run rate, which made a huge difference by the end of the tournament. He had two sloppy failures against Denmark and Nepal in the group stage and then threw away his wicket in the final against Nepal after getting a decent start. He’s a batsman who can be classified as a team player after being rotated into three different batting positions to suit the needs of the team, although it wasn’t always to great effect for him personally.

A greater cause for concern for him is his fielding. Along the ground he is okay and generally puts in some good efforts to slide or dive to save balls from going over the boundary. In the air though, he is poor at judging the flight of the ball coming off the bat and it leads to bad mistakes, such as when he ran in from the rope against Nepal for a chance against Paras Khadka only to see the ball go over his head before landing inside the rope and bouncing over for a boundary.

Orlando Baker – C: Someone who didn’t do a lot wrong, but didn’t set the world on fire either on this tour. Baker stabilized USA with help from Allen against Denmark after a middle order collapse, but the pair never got a proper chance to bring USA completely back into the contest once rain intervened. He failed after being thrust into the opening slot against Nepal in the group game and then was somewhat harshly dropped for it. Recalled for the final against Nepal, he showed that he still has some gas left in the tank by grinding out 39 to top score with Nadkarni in the defeat. He finished with 66 runs at an average of 33.00 on tour, USA’s fourth best average in Malaysia.

With the ball, he wasn’t used that much, but took three wickets in 15 overs, a strike rate that other players in the squad would have gladly traded for. He dropped two chances that came his way, a sharp one at square leg against Nepal and a reflex return chance against Malaysia. He also missed a chance to run out Subash Khakurel on 99 in the group game against Nepal and fluffed a stumping late in the final against Nepal after putting on the pads to relieve Taylor. The four misses by Baker summed up a forgettable tour in the fielding department for USA overall. However, the fact that Baker is willing to keep wicket if called upon in an emergency shows his unselfishness for the team.

Timroy Allen – A-: USA’s most dynamic player, Allen showed how much USA missed him last year in Hong Kong and again in the UAE in March. Came in with 15 overs to go against Malaysia and produced his best score in a USA uniform, 72 not out in 43 balls on his way to claiming the first of two Man of the Match awards in Malaysia. Allen topped the averages for USA in the event with 166 runs at 55.33. Had he come in at number seven with 11 overs to go against Nepal instead of number three in the fifth over of the chase during their group game, USA would have had a much better chance of winning that game.

Image (right) - Timroy Allen poses with his Man of the Match award after USA's win over Singapore that clinched a spot in next year's ICC WCL Division Three in Bermuda. [Courtesy: Peter Della Penna/DreamCricket.com]

In addition to topping the batting averages for USA, Allen took the most wickets with 10 at an average of 19.80, although he was slightly expensive going at more than five runs per over. Allen also had more chances put down off his bowling than anyone else. USA’s fielders dropped six chances off him and that had an effect on his numbers across the board. In the field, he’s not as energetic as he used to be. He took one catch and put down a sharp one at gully in this tournament. In general he looks more reserved when it comes to throwing his body around, mindful of how he aggravated a back injury in Italy two years ago while diving to stop a boundary in a 10-wicket win over Tanzania.

Ryan Corns – C: When given an opportunity, Corns responded quite well. His stats might not say so, but he was a valuable niche player on tour and has plenty of room to grow into a position where he can be a solid all-rounder for USA in the future. Selecting him as the lone left-arm spin option ahead of Asif Khan was a bold move as Khan is a better pure spinner, but Corns justified the move with some handy performances and the tour did a lot for his continued development.

Batting wise, Corns did about as well as could be expected when thrust into a role he is not suited for, coming in late in the innings to slog quick runs batting at number eight. He finished with 45 runs in three innings at an average of 15.00, his best contribution coming against Singapore with 24 in a tight match. Fielding wise, he needs to work on his throwing accuracy. He is very energetic fielding at point, but dropped a chance and missed two run out opportunities, including a crucial one against Nepal when Subash Khakurel was on 22, before finally converting one against Singapore.

Elmore Hutchinson – B-: Quietly was one of USA’s better bowlers on tour. Hutchinson had the best economy rate for any of USA’s pace bowlers at 3.90 in 40 overs, the second most overs bowled by USA behind Muhammad Ghous. He sometimes had trouble locating his line though, bowling a team-high 14 wide deliveries that went for 19 wide runs out of the 62 wide runs USA conceded. He finished with six wickets, tied with Ghous and Shuja for second on the team.

With the bat, he had USA’s sixth best average on tour, 17.66. Hutchinson scored 53 runs in four innings and was used as a pinch hitter against Tanzania, coming in at three to slog some runs when USA was looking to boost their net run rate. He showed good athleticism overall in the field and despite only taking one catch, never grassed any and always showed tremendous effort and hustle to save balls from going over the boundary.

Image (left) - Elmore Hutchinson bowling against Nepal at Kinrara Academy Oval. Hutchinson was one of USA's better bowlers in Malaysia and finished with the second best economy rate on the team behind Muhammad Ghous. [Courtesy: ICC/Peter Lim]

Abhimanyu Rajp – C-: Rajp was dropped after three games, which may have mystified many back home as he was USA’s second best wicket-taker at the time behind Allen, but his economy rate was frightfully high for a finger-spinner. Rajp shined at the ICC World Twenty20 Qualifier because it’s a format where a bowler can get away with trading off runs for wickets. A 7.55 economy rate in that event looked okay next to 10 wickets, which was good enough to tie for the team lead. However, a 5.73 economy rate standing next to five wickets in Malaysia was not good enough. Rajp has a learning curve to adjust to in 50-over cricket. He must strike a balance between being economical and attacking for wickets.

With the bat, he was bizarrely asked to bat at number three in the final against Nepal in his only appearance at the crease and didn’t score. Fielding wise, teams aren’t afraid to take him on in the circle and he missed a critical run out chance against Andreas Lambert of Denmark, but in the air he is one of USA’s sure-handed fielders. He got official credit for two catches but also took two other very crucial ones as a sub fielder in a tense battle against Singapore.

Usman Shuja – C: Shuja was named Man of the Match in an easy win over Tanzania after taking 3 for 14. Overall though, he was very average. In the other four games he played against Singapore, Denmark and twice against Nepal, he took just 3 wickets for 116 runs. While he was economical against Denmark, he struggled to make the most of the new ball when conditions were in his favor in that match, taking 1 for 20 in seven overs. Entering the tournament, he had a phenomenal record against Nepal with 14 wickets in six games at an average of 11.86 and an economy rate of 3.25. In the two matches USA played against Nepal in Malaysia, Shuja finished with 1 for 75 in 12 overs.

Shuja had multiple chances dropped off his bowling in the group game against Nepal, but in general was just not as effective as he usually is. His batting has also been marginalized by the current management. This is the same player who rescued USA from 20 for 7 against Oman and took them to a remarkable two-wicket win at Division Three in Hong Kong last year by scoring 43 not out. He is good enough to bat at number eight, definitely no lower than nine but he was sent in at numbers 10 and 11 in this tournament and responded by batting down to that level, scoring 4 runs in three innings.

Muhammad Ghous – B: After going through a sophomore slump in 2011, Ghous has bounced back during his third year with the senior team to be a dependable performer. He had the best economy rate for the team on tour with 3.62 runs per over in a team high 48.3 overs. He can sometimes look lethargic when not a lot is at stake, but put Ghous in a pressure-packed situation and he is very hard to rattle. He was chiefly responsible for the shift in momentum during the second innings against Singapore. After batsman Chetan Suryawanshi flew out of the gate following the rain delay, Ghous reeled Singapore back in by applying outstanding pressure. It didn’t take long for dot balls to turn into wickets.

Like Mishra, Ghous reacts very poorly when the ball comes off the bat in the air and it can result in some angst for his fellow bowlers. When the ball travels directly to him though, he is a solid catching fielder. He put down a difficult return chance in the final against Nepal, but took two catches during the tournament. He finished tied for second with Shuja and Hutchinson by taking six wickets, but also had three chances dropped off his bowling.

Andy Mohammed – Incomplete: Mohammed played two matches, batting just once at number four against Singapore in the final group game. He entered in the 21st over in a situation that called for pushing the ball around for singles and doubles to rebuild in the middle overs after both openers had been dismissed. Instead, he kept trying to slog Singapore’s spinners for six. He succeeded once before being caught on the boundary for 10. Mohammed needs to show greater maturity and awareness of match situations to get more opportunities in the future. In the field, he converted a run out chance against Tanzania and had a brilliant diving catch against Singapore to spark USA’s fightback in the field.

Akeem Dodson – Incomplete: Dodson only played one match, scoring 3 against Singapore. He took one catch behind the stumps but also missed a straightforward stumping. Regardless of whether he was fielding inside the boundary or wearing a 12th man’s pinnie outside of it, no one brought more positive energy to the team when they were at the ground than Dodson. He’s eager to improve and his attitude demonstrates he has unwavering commitment to the team, supporting the squad wholeheartedly whether he plays no match or every match.

Click here for Part 1 - Team Grades

Coming up in Part 3 - Outlook for 2013 ICC WCL Division Three

USA Cricket: Basant Regmi shreds through USA lineup once again as Nepal wins Division Four title

openingbat — Mon, 10 Sep 2012 12:26:00 GMT

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

By Peter Della Penna in Kuala Lumpur (on Twitter)

Scorecard powered by the New Inning Foundation I Match Commentary

Left-arm spinner Basant Regmi took five wickets for the second consecutive match against USA to catapult Nepal to an eight-wicket win in the 2012 ICC WCL Division Four championship match on Monday at Kinrara Academy Oval in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Just three days after Regmi took 5 for 35 in a 32-run win over USA, he claimed 5 for 20 to help bowl out USA for 145 before Nepal chased the runs for the loss of two wickets in 28 overs. Not only was Regmi named Man of the Match, but he also walked away with the award for Player of the Tournament after taking a tournament-best 21 wickets in six matches at an average of 6.66 and an economy rate of 2.80.

“Mentally we thought we had some momentum going into the game from our win against Singapore yesterday but the end result was something different,” USA vice-captain Sushil Nadkarni said after the match. “I think it’s a combination of tiredness as well as the ability to play good spin bowling. I think the Nepal guys are good spinners and the guys in our team, some of them are more used to playing fast bowling than spin.”

USA won the toss and batted first on a day that was overcast to start with but turned clear and sunny as the match wore on. Nepal fielded an unchanged lineup from the win over USA in the group stage while USA made three changes to their starting eleven from Sunday’s win over Singapore. Aditya Thyagarajan was out injured while Andy Mohammed and Akeem Dodson were subbed out in favor of Aditya Mishra, Orlando Baker and Abhimanyu Rajp.

USA’s best partnership of the day went for just 39 runs as they looked tired and overmatched against Nepal’s fresh and energetic fielding unit. Steven Taylor opened the batting with Mishra but just as he did on Friday, Taylor fell in the fifth over to Sanjam Regmi, this time playing onto his stumps for 11 to make it 16 for 1.

Despite the fact that he was the only player in the USA squad who had yet to face a single delivery in a match on tour, off-spinner Rajp was bizarrely sent in to bat at number three. He lasted just six deliveries before edging medium pacer Binod Das behind to wicketkeeper Subash Khakurel for a duck to make it 17 for 2.

Nadkarni arrived and has he has done all tour long provided some stability to proceedings and built up a steady partnership with Mishra. They added 39 runs for the third wicket but just when it appeared they were steering USA out of trouble, Mishra skipped down the track and lofted Basant to Pradeep Airee at long off to go for 28. Steve Massiah came in and departed without scoring when he spooned a catch to Amrit Bhattarai at mid off to give Paras Khadka a wicket at 57 for 4 in 19 overs.

Baker entered and the veteran knuckled down with Nadkarni to grind out runs against the Nepal spin attack which was making excellent use of a turning track. They added 26 together before Nadkarni got out in uncharacteristic fashion, pulling left arm spinner Shakti Gauchan to Bhattarai at deep square leg for 39 to make it 83 for 5 in the 28th over. Nadkarni finished as the tournament’s leading scorer with 238 runs in five matches at an average of 47.60.

Timroy Allen joined Baker and the two built a methodical partnership to take USA to 98 for 5 when the batting power play was taken to start the 36th. Allen cracked the fourth ball of the over for a boundary, USA’s first since the 24th over, but on the very next delivery he was hit on the back leg in front of the stumps and given LBW for 10 to make it 104 for 6.

Ryan Corns entered at eight and fought hard with Baker to extend the USA innings through all 50 overs. He added 33 runs for the seventh wicket with Baker before driving Basant to Gyanendra Malla at cover to leave for 9 and make it 137 for 7. Two balls later, Baker tried to flick a short ball through the leg side and sent a leading edge back to Basant for 39 to put USA at 138 for 8 in 45 overs.

Basant removed Elmore Hutchinson for 2 with his second successful LBW appeal of the day in the 47th to make it 141 for 9 and then wrapped up the innings on the first ball of the 49th by winning a third LBW decision to claim Usman Shuja for 2 with USA all out for 145. Nepal’s innings in the field was especially impressive because they conceded just one extra, a leg bye.

Nepal had a brief hiccup at the start of the chase, losing Anil Mandal for 3 when he drove Hutchinson to Massiah at cover to make it 9 for 1 in the third. Khakurel was then joined by Malla and they added 93 runs for the second wicket as Nepal cruised toward the target. Malla played a free spirited and enterprising knock, successfully connecting on numerous reverse sweeps over the off side, including one that went for six, before crashing USA’s spinners down the ground for two more sixes. He brought up his 50 in 53 balls and eventually finished with 66 before finally perishing to the reverse sweep as Muhammad Ghous knocked back leg stump to make it 102 for 2 in the 20th.

Khadka entered and took just 8.2 more overs to finish the job with Khakurel. Khadka hit the winning runs through cover to finish 25 not out and cap an undefeated run to the tournament title. They’re the first team to go 6-0 at a World Cricket League tournament since the UAE did it at Division Two in 2011.

Image (above) - Some of the more than 100 Nepal fans in attendance celebrate with the players after Nepal received the World Cricket League championship silver. [Courtesy: Peter Della Penna/DreamCricket.com]

Both USA and Nepal now progress to 2013 ICC WCL Division Three in Bermuda from April 28-May 5. Denmark and Singapore stay in Division Four, which won’t be played again until 2014. Malaysia and Tanzania drop down to Division Five which is also due to be held in 2014 where they join Guernsey and Cayman Islands.

In the other playoff matches on Monday, Singapore beat Denmark in the third place game by five wickets after bowling them out for 83 at Selangor Turf Club. In the fifth place match, Malaysia beat Tanzania for the second day in a row, winning by five wickets after chasing down Tanzania’s 187.

USA Cricket: 14-man squad officially announced for 2012 ICC WCL Division Four in Malaysia

openingbat — Sat, 04 Aug 2012 21:05:00 GMT

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

[Source: USACA Press Release]

USACA has announced a 14-man squad to participate in the 2012 ICC Pepsi World Cricket League Division 4 Tournament to be held in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia from September 3 to 10, 2012. Along with USA, the other participating associate countries are Denmark, Malaysia, Nepal, Singapore and Tanzania.

The tournament will be round robin with each team playing each other once followed by playoffs and finals to determine rankings from 1-6. The top 2 finishers will be promoted to WCL Division 3 scheduled to be held in Bermuda from April 28 to May 5, 2013.

Looking for consistency and continuity, the selectors opted to retain a core of players that participated in the ICC Twenty20 World Cup Qualifier in the UAE in March and recalled five experienced players including Steve Massiah who has returned as captain.

The team is a good blend of experience and youth. However, undoubtedly, USA will be depending heavily on its younger players who have all come through the various regional youth programs and ICC U19 World Cup participation over the past six years.

USA is expected to arrive in Malaysia on August 28 for practice, training and acclimatization prior to the start of the tournament on September 3.

USA squad: Steve Massiah (captain, New York), Sushil Nadkarni (vice-captain, Central East), Timroy Allen (South East), Orlando Baker (Central East), Ryan Corns (Central East), Akeem Dodson (New York), Muhammad Ghous (Atlantic), Elmore Hutchinson (South West), Rashard Marshall (New York), Aditya Mishra (North West), Abhimanyu Rajp (South West), Usman Shuja (Central West), Steven Taylor (South East), Aditya Thyagarajan (South West).

Coach - Robin Singh

Assistant Coach - Thirunavukkarasu Kumaran

Bowling Coach - Nasir "Charlie" Javed

Physio - Akhtar Masood Syed

Manager - Shoaib Ahmed

Video Analyst - Sriram Somayajula