Winning the toss and batting first, Canada looked in deep trouble at 120 for 8 in the 31st over, but a tremendous fightback by Stephan Rajasingam and Amanpal Gillar produced an unbroken 69-run ninth wicket partnership in the final nine overs that turned out to be the difference today as Canada defeated USA by 34 runs on day three of the ICC Americas Northern Division U-15 Tournament at Erskine Cricket Ground in Brooklyn, N.Y. Nitesh Kumar was named Man of the Match after opening the match for Canada with 41 and then turned in eight overs of brilliant off-spin bowling to finish with 3 for 12.
Canada got off to a decent start and went to 40 without loss when the first of four runouts happened. Kumar and his opening partner Nikhil Dutta, along with number four Talha Shaikh and number six Vidura Ratnayake all perished needlessly as a result of poor communication between the batsmen. There could have been at least two more runouts had USA’s fielders done a better job of communicating which end to throw the ball to when more chances presented themselves. Canada’s running was diabolical all day long, a continuation of a problem that was evident Tuesday in their loss to Bermuda.
Krish Goel finished off a fantastic spell of off-spin by getting the wickets of Jeevan Sidhu and Trevor Manoosingh to finish with 2 for 20 and put Canada on the back foot at 120 for 8. But Rajasingam and Gillar played patiently and sensibly to rebuild the innings. After taking eight balls to get off the mark, Gillar started to play more confidently and freely while receiving excellent support from Rajasingam. The two did a great job of rotating the strike and dispatching any loose balls to the boundary. Gillar wound up on 37 not out with three 4s and two 6s off only 30 balls and Rajasingam walked off unbeaten with 26 off 38 balls to guide Canada to 189 for 8 in 40 overs.
USA was dealt an early blow when Arsh Buch was caught behind on the last ball of the first over off Ratnayake. Captain Steven Taylor came in to steady the ship with Vikram Valluri as they put on 41 for the second wicket, but Taylor fell when he tried to drive a delivery from Kumar that flew off the outside edge to Yug Rao at point. That turned out to be the biggest partnership of USA’s innings as Canada’s spin bowlers took control of the match. The combination of Kumar, Manoosingh, Dutta and Shayan Ahmed bowled 20 consecutive overs of spin from the 7th to the 26th over as five wickets fell in that time for only 51 runs.
Roshan Varadarajan put in a valiant effort coming in at number eight and top scored for the USA with 43 off 40 balls. While many of his teammates struggled and got tied down by the spinners of Canada, Varadarajan thrived on them. He routinely and confidently used his feet to get to the pitch of the ball, seemingly picking the length straight out of the bowler’s hand. He crushed three 4s and three 6s and took as much of the strike as possible while batting with the tail. But he started running out of partners and in due time he was forced to hit out, getting caught off Manoosingh by Dutta running in from the boundary to finish the match.
USA and Canada are both 1-1 with today’s result. Bermuda is also 1-1, producing a three-way tie at the halfway point of the tournament. Bermuda is back in action tomorrow as they look for revenge on USA after their devastating defeat by one run on Monday. Play is scheduled for 10:30 a.m. from Erskine Cricket Ground in Brooklyn.
Official Scorecard
ICC Americas Northern Division U-15 Tournament – Canada vs. USA
Canada won by 34 runs
Canada won the toss and batted
Man of the Match: Nitesh Kumar
Canada Batting
Batsman Runs Balls 4s 6s Dismissal
N Kumar* 41 43 4 0 runout (Pradhan/Goel)
N Dutta 10 32 0 0 runout (Varadarajan/Singh)
Y Rao 0 4 0 0 LBW Ross
T Shaikh 6 12 0 0 runout (Nagaraja/Taylor+)
S Ahmed 6 24 0 0 ct Buch bowled Valluri
V Ratnayake 19 29 0 1 runout (Singh/Taylor+)
T Manoosingh 24 26 2 1 ct Taylor+ bowled Goel
J Sidhu 0 3 0 0 c & b Goel
S Rajasingam 26 38 2 0 not out
A Gillar 37 30 3 2 not out
Total Extras 20 (2 no balls, 1 bye, 1 leg bye, 16 wides)
Team Total 189 for 8 in 40 overs
Did not bat: A Ghosal+
Fall of wicket: 40/1 (Dutta), 50/2 (Rao), 65/3 (Kumar), 66/4 (Shaikh), 79/5 (Ahmed), 99/6 (Ratnayake), 100/7 (Sidhu), 120/8 (Manoosingh).
USA Bowling Overs-Maidens-Runs-Wickets
P Pradhan 4-0-23-0
A Buch 4-0-12-0
O Singh 4-0-31-0
A Nagaraja 1-0-6-0
T Ross 8-1-30-1
K Goel 8-3-20-2
V Valluri 3-0-10-1
R Patel 3-0-21-0
R Varadarajan 4-0-26-0
A Persaud 1-0-8-0
USA Batting
Batsman Runs Balls 4s 6s Dismissal
V Valluri 12 42 1 0 runout (Shaikh/Manoosingh)
A Buch 0 2 0 0 ct Ghosal+ bowled Ratnayake
S Taylor*+ 29 22 2 2 ct Rao bowled Kumar
T Ross 26 34 3 1 ct Ratnayake bowled Kumar
R Patel 1 4 0 0 bowled Ahmed
A Persaud 17 34 0 1 ct Manoosingh bowled Sidhu
K Goel 1 15 0 0 ct Ratnayake bowled Kumar
R Varadarajan 43 40 3 3 ct Dutta bowled Manoosingh
O Singh 0 3 0 0 bowled Ratnayake
A Nagaraja 6 16 0 0 st Ghosal+ bowled Manoosingh
P Pradhan 3 6 0 0 not out
Total Extras 17 (1 no ball, 0 byes, 1 leg bye, 15 wides)
Team Total 155 all out in 36.2 overs
Canada Bowling Overs-Maidens-Runs-Wickets
V Ratnayake 7-0-41-2
A Gillar 4-0-24-0
N Kumar 8-3-12-3
T Manoosingh 7.2-0-40-2
N Dutta 1-0-5-0
S Ahmed 5-1-14-1
J Sidhu 4-0-18-1
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