Heading into the final over, USA needed 21 to win and Rajp provided hope for USA by hitting the first two balls for a four and a six down the ground. With the equation down to 11 off 4, he couldn't keep it up.

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By Peter Della Penna in Abu Dhabi (on Twitter)

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Carl Sandri scored 49 not out off 28 balls and followed it up with 2 for 32 in the field to lift Italy past USA by 8 runs on Wednesday at the 2012 ICC World Twenty20 Qualifier in the UAE. The result keeps Italy undefeated at 2-0 while USA remains winless at 0-2.

“I thought today that we lost wickets at the wrong time,” said USA captain Sushil Nadkarni after the loss. “We were stroking the ball well. We were turning over the strike pretty well and just as it looked like we wanted that to happen for another two or three overs, we would lose a wicket.”

Italy won the toss and elected to bat first on a hot morning in Abu Dhabi. USA made two changes to their lineup from Tuesday. Ryan Corns suffered a groin injury and couldn’t suit up while wicketkeeper Nauman Mustafa was dropped from the starting XI. Gowkaran Roopnarine and Abhimanyu Rajp were the two players to come in. Steven Taylor put on the gloves in place of Mustafa.

USA pounced early in the field to runout Michael Di Venuto for 6 in the second over. Andy Northcote guided a ball behind point and Di Venuto called him through but Usman Shuja at point fielded and fired over the stumps to Taylor.

Two overs later, Muhammad Ghous bowled star all-rounder Peter Petricola for 2 to make it 16 for 2 in the fourth. Rajp came on for the sixth over and on his very first ball for the USA at senior level trapped Northcote LBW for 13 to make it 26 for 3.

Gareth Berg and Damian Crowley then wrested back control for Italy with a 39-run stand in 5.3 overs. It came to an end when Berg tried to scoop Orlando Baker over short fine leg but Elmore Hutchinson was in position to take a simple catch. USA struck again six balls later to remove Crowley for 26 when Rajp showed tremendous speed to chase down a ball at short extra cover off his own bowling before throwing to Taylor to make it 70 for 5.

It was at this point that Italy captain Alessandro Bonora joined Sandri at the crease and stabilized the innings with a 43-run stand in 6.2 overs. Bonora did well to rotate the strike as 14 of his 18 runs came off singles. Sandri was striking the ball clean and hard over the ropes at the other end, eventually finishing with two boundaries and four sixes in his innings.

Image (right) - Carl Sandri receives his Man of the Match award. [Courtesy: ICC/Ian Jacobs]

Bonora was dismissed when he lofted Ghous to Rajp at long on to end the 18th. Sandri didn’t slow down though and added 24 off the final two overs to boost Italy to a below par but defendable total of 137 for 6. Ghous was the pick of the bowlers for USA, finishing with 2 for 18 in four.

USA’s chase got off to the worst possible start when Nadkarni was caught behind first ball off the bowling of Berg. Hutchinson came in at three and never got going, LBW for 1 off 7 balls when he played across a full delivery from Sandri.

Taylor got out for 15 when he was trapped in front off left-arm seamer Vince Pennazza to make it 29 for 3 in the sixth. Baker joined Aditya Mishra and the two looked set for a long innings but both got out after getting starts. Hemantha Jayasena pulled off a stunning one-handed catch at midwicket to remove Baker for 11 to give Sandri his second wicket and Mishra was stumped for 25 giving the charge to Crowley’s left-arm spin as Italy took control at 70 for 5 in the 12th over.

Adil Bhatti gave a leading edge back to Crowley to depart for 5 bringing Shuja to the crease where he joined Asif Khan. For a brief while, it looked like the two players were going to reprise their heroics from Hong Kong last year when they won a match for USA against Oman, but it was not to be today. USA needed 38 to win in the final five overs, but Pennazza came back for a second spell and removed Shuja for 8 to make it 103 for 7 in the 16th.

Roopnarine, who injured himself in the field trying to chase after a ball heading for the boundary, came in at number nine but was hampered running between the wickets with a heavy limp. He lasted five balls before missing a sweep against Crowley to be LBW for 2.

Rajp joined Khan with 27 needed off 16 balls. Italy bowled several full tosses down the stretch, but the batsmen struggled to get bat on ball. Heading into the final over, USA needed 21 to win and Rajp provided hope for USA by hitting the first two balls for a four and a six down the ground. With the equation down to 11 off 4, he couldn’t keep it up and managed just 2 runs for the rest of the over. USA finished on 129 for 8. Crowley finished with the best figures for Italy, taking 3 for 20, but Pennazza was also superb with 2 for 11 in his four.

“This is a new team. A lot of guys are playing at this level for the first time,” said Nadkarni. “This is exactly the kind of situations that will help them gain the much needed experience. The key is that we learn from these situations pretty quick and we implement the what not to dos in the future games and start coming through on the results.”

USA will face off against Namibia on Thursday at the ICC Global Cricket Academy in Dubai. Namibia defeated Scotland on Wednesday by 49 runs with Namibia's Louis van der Westhuizen scoring the tournament’s first century, 106 not out in 54 balls.

Live coverage of USA’s match against Namibia will begin at 1:45 a.m. EST on Thursday morning. DreamCricket.com’s tournament coverage is made possible in part by the New Inning Foundation.

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