By Peter Della Penna

Team USA held Canada to 193/9 on a difficult batting wicket, but the conditions were too much to overcome as Team USA was bowled out for 131 in 39 overs in the premier match of the ICC Americas U-19 Regional Qualifier at Maple Leaf CC in King City, Ontario.

Canada won the toss and batted first on a different wicket than the first three games USA has played on. While this pitch was harder than the previous ones used, the bounce was very uneven and it proved a tremendous obstacle to both teams today.

“It was really slow,” said Canada’s Ruvindu Gunasekera. “It was a pretty hard pitch to bat on. It was turning a lot. Our goal was to reach 250.” Gunasekera, who was Man of the Match, scored 42 runs at the top of the order for Canada. His opening partnership of 62 runs with Hiral Patel was the biggest of the game.

After a steady start in the first four overs to reach 14/0, Gunasekera went driving at a Naseer Jamali delivery and got an inside edge that just missed the stumps. Three balls later, he hit a four in the air just past a diving Muhammad Asad Ghous at mid on. The near misses would be a recurring theme throughout the day for both teams.

After Hiral Patel cut Jamali square for four in the seventh over, he smashed one straight at Jamali, who got a hand to it in his follow through, but couldn’t complete what would have been a stunning caught and bowled with the score on 35 and Patel on 17. Regis Burton replaced Salman Ahmad at the Pavilion End and on his third ball to Patel, an edge went just wide of slip.

Canada passed 50 thanks to a pull behind square leg by the left-handed Gunasekera off Burton in the 11th over. Yash Shah came on from the Farm End and kept things tight, allowing 10 runs in his first four overs. It allowed Burton to make the first breakthrough as Patel was clean bowled trying to clip a ball through the on side. Patel departed for 31 off 37 to make it 62/1.

Captain Rustum Bhatti came to the crease and set about building a partnership with Gunasekera. They were cruising along as Gunasekera succeeded with another pull to square leg off Burton for four, followed by a full toss from Burton that was smashed to midwicket for a boundary by Bhatti to make the score 93/1.

Ghous replaced Shah from the Farm End after Shah had bowled six overs. Ghous struck in his third over, the 24th, as Gunasekera gave him the charge trying to clip a single through the leg side and was out stumped by Saami Siddiqui for 42 off 77 balls.

Shiva Vashishat came on from the Pavilion End in the 29th over after Burton had bowled out his 10 in a solid spell for only 44 runs. On the last ball of his first over, Vashishat nearly had the new man Nitesh Kumar caught at cover by Azurdeen Mohammed, but the ball just went to his left. Vashishat kept plugging away with beautifully flighted leg-spin and got Bhatti out in his next over for 31. Bhatti got a bottom edge onto the stumps trying to cut to make it 117/3.

Usman Limbada came in and first ball was nearly out as an outside edge sailed by the man at first slip into the gully region. Limbada then came close to getting out again as a lofted cover drive went just to the right of Ahmad at cover. But living dangerously finally caught up with Limbada as he tried to hit Vashishat over the long on boundary and was caught by Jamali for 7 to make it 127/4.

Kumar, who crossed when the ball was in the air, was nearly out on the next two balls as two aerial cover drives just evaded Mohammed.

The series of almost chances was exacerbated by some uncharacteristically sloppy fielding from Team USA. Several balls were misfielded, allowing dots into ones and ones to become twos, but the worst moment happened when Ghous was bowling in the 34th over. After four dot balls, what should have been a fifth dot ball hit to mid on became 5 overthrows as a potential run out chance was thrown way over Siddiqui’s head all the way to the boundary.

Ghous kept his cool though and in his final over, on the first ball after the second drinks break, got Darius D’Souza out LBW for 12 to a ball that kept low to make it 147/5. Kumar nearly got Arsalan Qadir run out three balls later when Vashishat fielded a ball at midwicket and threw to Siddiqui behind the stumps. Qadir set off and was sent back, but would have been out had it been a direct hit.

Qadir was run out for 2 a short time later at 156/6 with a direct hit from Ahmad at square leg. It was only a matter of time as Kumar seemed to be getting all of his partners into trouble. After so many chances off Vashishat weren’t going to hand, Mohammed took a fantastic diving catch to his left to get Kumar for the captain, gone for 36 at 171/7.

Vashishat’s bad luck continued though when on the very next ball to the new batsman Hardik Kotak, an outside edge evaded Siddiqui. In the next over, Shah took a brilliant catch off his own bowling to get Riayzkhan Pathan for 3 making it 176/8. But a run out chance was missed to dismiss Kotak on the next ball to end the over.

Mohammed came on to bowl for the first time in the match in the 48th over and on his fourth ball got Zain Mahmood bowled to one that kept low for 2 to make it 184/9. Kotak stayed around for the final two overs with Maninder Jill Singh Aulakh to add nine runs, setting Team USA 194 to win.

Canada came out to field and seemed intent on sledging first and taking wickets second. After Jamali had a running conversation with the Canada bench while fielding at fine leg early in Canada’s innings, the entire Canada team now seized its opportunity to talk as much as possible in an attempt to distract Team USA’s bats.

After back-to-back twos by Mohammed off Kotak started the innings for Team USA, Kotak bowled a bouncer that caught Mohammed flush on the helmet, causing Canada’s fielders to swarm the pitch in excitement. Lots of noise was coming from the wicket and at the start of the third over, the umpires had to step in and speak with Bhatti, Canada’s captain and wicketkeeper, to try and calm things down.

After Henry Wardley got off the mark with an edged four past second slip, Mohammed sent a powerful pull behind square leg for four, but in the next over was out caught behind for 12 trying to defend a delivery from Aulakh to make it 19/1.

Ryan Corns came to the crease with Mohammed as his runner after he injured his left thigh trying to make a sliding stop in the field. Wardley played a wonderful square drive for four off Kotak, but in the eighth over was out for 9 trying to play the same shot and dragged the ball onto his stumps to make it 28/2.

Qadir nearly had Vashishat out LBW on his first ball and then did just that two balls later, slipping in a slower delivery as Vashishat was through his shot and gone for 3 to make it 32/3. Canada was fired up, especially Qadir. His first ball to Sewdial was a bouncer that was over head height and called a wide. At one stage while Qadir was fielding in the slips, he turned around to start sledging the Team USA supporters, causing more than a few people in attendance to scratch their heads.

Corns tried to rebuild with Greg Sewdial. After surviving some more bouncers from Canada’s attack, he struck a solid cover drive off Aulakh to take his score to 12. But in Patel’s first over bowling left-arm orthodox, Corns was caught first ball, sending a bat-pad catch to Kotak at cover to make it 45/4 in the 12th.

“Our strength was our batting,” said Team USA coach Sew Shivnarine. “But our batting failed us today because Canada had very good spinners.”

Ghous came to the crease and as the second ball of the next over was about to be bowled, Qadir pulled up limping, appearing to have sprained an ankle. He departed and was replaced in the field by Abishek Krisnamoorthy. The over was finished by Kotak. The field became noticeably quieter when Qadir was on the sidelines. The Team USA bats, not coincidentally, built their biggest partnership of the game. But it was not without chances.

Sewdial was on 7 and the score at 59/4 when Bhatti made a mess of a stumping chance from Pathan’s off-spin bowling. A loud LBW shout was turned down on the next ball. Sewdial was also nearly out to Pathan in the next over as he lofted a ball to long off, who did not pick it up off the bat and was late in making a diving effort.

Sewdial settled down and benefitted from the presence of Ghous, who did a great job rotating the strike to negate the pressure of the spinners. Sewdial smacked a cover drive for four and then pulled a short ball from Pathan to square leg for another boundary. In the 20th over, he launched Patel out of the ground past long off for 6, bringing the total to 82/4. Team USA looked poised to turn the match around in their favor after the top order collapse, but Ghous was out to Pathan on the final ball of the next over as he checked his drive and sent a simple return catch for 12 off 36 balls.

“I think he lost concentration,” said Shivnarine. It was a huge blow to Team USA after all the hard yards had been done by Ghous, who looked set to go on and make a decent score. But Team USA was once again on the back foot at 86/5.

Sewdial and Burton then struggled to survive. Three consecutive maidens were bowled by Canada. Sewdial was on 28 when he was hit on the back leg and a strong LBW shout by Pathan was turned down. Patel then dropped Burton on 10 at midwicket off Pathan with the score 98/5. Two overs later when Mahmood had replaced Pathan, Burton sent a leading edge back over the bowler’s head into no man’s land where it fell between mid on and mid off. Sewdial tried to break the shackles, smashing a four to the long on boundary.

The two saw off Patel and Pathan’s spin, but on the final ball of Mahmood’s second over in the 35th, the dagger was plunged into Team USA. Burton was on strike and cut a ball behind point. Sewdial took off and appeared to make the striker’s end safely, but when Limbada’s direct hit broke the stumps, the umpire’s finger went up and Sewdial had to go for 41 off 82 balls, leaving Team USA at 119/6.

Saami Siddiqui’s frustrating tournament continued when he was out for a golden duck to Gunasekera, offering a leading edge back to the bowler when he hit against the spin attempting to turn a ball onto the leg side. Gunasekera then took his second wicket, getting Burton out bowled trying to pull for 22 to make it 128/8.

Patel came back on for his ninth over in the 39th and on the last two balls of the over got Jamali to sky an edge to Mahmood at point and then Ahmad driving to Mahmood at point once more to close out the match. Team USA was bowled out for 131.

Team USA is now tied with Bermuda in second place at 3-1 after four matches. Canada, who faces Bermuda in its final match tomorrow, is 4-0 and in the driver’s seat to win the tournament title. Team USA takes on Cayman Islands tomorrow, who defeated Argentina by 92 runs today. Bermuda defeated the Bahamas by 106 runs in the day’s other match. If Canada defeats Bermuda and Team USA beats Cayman Islands, Team USA is automatically through to the ICC Global Qualifier in Toronto this September in the final step to qualifying for the U-19 World Cup in New Zealand next February. If Bermuda beats Canada, Team USA will need to beat Cayman Islands and have a superior run rate to either Bermuda or Canada to advance as there will be a three-way tie at the top of the standings. Currently, Canada leads the net run rate table with +3.87. Team USA has a .52 advantage on Bermuda, with +2.16 to Bermuda’s +1.64.

“The first thing, we gotta look at the weather tomorrow,” said Shivnarine. “If the weather is fine and we win the toss, we’re gonna bat. We have to make 350 or something. Cayman Islands, they’re not a strong team. But cricket is a funny game. You can’t underestimate the underdogs.”

Canada U19: 193 for 9 (50.0 overs) 3 Hours, 4 Minutes.
USA U19 Canada: 131 all out (39.0 overs) 2 Hours, 40 Minutes.
U19 Won By 62 runs

Canada U19 won toss and decided to bat

Canada U19

USA U19