Man of the Match Steve Massiah scored a brisk 74 with nine fours and a six to lead a USA rout over Fiji by 285 runs at the Pul Chowk Engineering College Ground in Kathmandu, Nepal on Day One of the ICC World Cricket League Division Five Tournament.

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By Peter Della Penna

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Man of the Match Steve Massiah scored a brisk 74 with nine fours and a six to lead a USA rout over Fiji by 285 runs at the Pul Chowk Engineering College Ground in Kathmandu, Nepal on Day One of the ICC World Cricket League Division Five Tournament.

Pic (Right): USA captain Steve Massiah pulls hard on his way to 74 in a Man of the Match performance.[Courtesy: Daniela Zaharia/USACA]

“It was a very pleasing knock,” said Massiah, who backed up an encouraging knock in USA’s warm-up match earlier in the week to top score for USA against Fiji. “I thought the warm up match did serve a purpose. My goal in the warm-up match was to spend as much time as possible in the middle because I needed that.”

Fiji won the toss and elected to field and made their first breakthrough right at the start of the match as Carl Wright was run out in the first over for 1 with only two runs on the board for USA. Massiah calmly came to the wicket and after combining with Orlando Baker to see the shine off the new ball, Massiah became the aggressor in the partnership, punishing anything loose from the Fiji bowling attack.

Massiah was on 23 with the score on 58 for 1 at the start of the 12th over when he fully unleashed himself on medium pacer Jikoi Vanualevu Kida. Massiah bashed the first ball of the over for a boundary before the second was a dot ball. The third was belted straight down the ground for another four and a no ball was called to bring up a free hit. Massiah then picked up a length ball and heaved it over long on for a six before hitting another loose delivery next ball for a boundary. He mercifully allowed a dot next ball before taking a single to keep strike, producing 20 runs in the over to deflate Fiji in the field.

Massiah brought up his 50 with his eighth boundary as Baker did a great job giving him as much of the strike as possible. The two added 129 together before Massiah was run out on the third ball of the 24th over from leg spinner Viliame Yabaki to make it 131 for 2. For the second ball in a row, Massiah laced a bullet along the turf to mid off, who had come in at the start of the over, but after deciding against a single the first time, Massiah decided to take on the fielder, captain Josefa Rika. Massiah appeared to be well in, but the throw was a direct hit and a devasted and disbelieving Massiah had to walk off knowing he had missed a century.

“I thought it was a very very close decision,” said Massiah. “I thought personally that I had made it but at the end, the umpire gave me out and that’s what matters.”

Lennox Cush came to the crease and followed up a half-century in the warm-up game with another brisk contribution. After Baker was out for 46 to make it 150 for 3, Cush combined with Aditya Thyagarajan to produce an 84-run stand for the fourth wicket.

Pic (Left): Rashard Marshall goes for another big one as part of his blistering 61.[Courtesy: Daniela Zaharia/USACA]

Cush once again made merry on short pitched bowling, heaving three sixes over the leg side in addition to four boundaries to bring up a half-century. But Thyagarajan and Cush fell in the space of nine runs, first Thyagarajan bowled off an inside edge for 39 going for a drive before Cush went packing trying to clear the off side boundary for another six to be out for 50 making it 243 for 5 in the 41st over as Josefa Dabea Balelcicia claimed both men.

It only provided an opportunity for Rashard Marshall and Timroy Allen to put the Fiji bowlers to the sword. USA took the batting power play at the start of the 43rd over with the score on 247 for 5 and in the next five overs, Marshall and Allen combined for 78 runs. After taking 17 off of Balelcicia in the 44th over, the two clobbered 23 in the 46th off the same bowler. Marshall started things off with a four and an elegant six clipped over fine leg before a leg bye was taken. Allen then defended a ball before pulverizing the next two balls over the leg side rope for back to back sixes.

Balelcicia got a small measure of revenge in the 48th over when he got Marshall to send one to long on to be out for 61 in only 28 balls, ending the sixth wicket partnership at 87 runs. The batsmen crossed in the air and Allen was given out LBW next ball for 32 in 17 deliveries to make the score 330 for 7. Saurabh Verma came in and clipped the hat trick ball through square leg for another USA boundary. He was run out for 6 when turned back by Clain Williams after taking off for a second run, but Williams and Imran Awan chipped in for a few runs at the end to get USA to 353 for 8 in their 50 overs.

“I thought it was a very very good team performance,” said Massiah. “Our goal was to get at least four to five half-century partnerships and I thought today we were very successful at doing that.”

USA came out after the innings break eager to bring the match to a quick end and it didn’t take long for the first wicket to fall as Kevin Darlington applied solid pressure on the openers until he trapped Joji Bulabalavu in front for 9 to make it 13 for 1 in the third over.

Pic (Right): Kevin Darlington's tight opening spell set the tone for USA in the field as he finished with 3 for 9. [Courtesy: Daniela Zaharia/USACA]

Darlington struck again on the final ball of his next over with an absolute gem, getting Fiji’s other opener Sekove Ravoka to edge one behind the stumps to Baker for 6 making it 22 for 2. Allen got in the act with the first ball of the eighth over as Tavo Sorovakatini played across and missed to be dead in front for 2 to make it 25 for 3. Darlington claimed his third scalp in the form of Kida who edged a ball off the shoulder of the bat to Marshall jogging in from point to make it 30 for 4 in the 9th.

After Cush and Baker teamed up for an outstanding stumping of Iniasi Cakacaka for 7, Awan ran through the lower order to take three wickets, despite struggling with his line especially to the left-handers Rika and Balelcicia. Awan took 3 for 16 in 8 overs as he bowled Rika, Gregory Browne and Yabaki, but 9 of those 16 runs came off wides.

Verma came on and bowled two tidy overs, the second of which brought about his first wicket for USA in 50-over match play as he accounted for Taniela Waqaituinayau LBW for 1 before Baker came on for the 29th over and got Tukana Tavo out LBW for 2 to end the match as Fiji was bowled out for 68 in 28.2 overs. Extras were the top score with 21 while Balelcicia was the only player to cross double-digits, finishing 13 not out coming in at number six.

“The key thing is for us to be very disciplined whether we bat or bowl and to execute our game plan,” said Massiah. “I thought the bowlers did that brilliantly so it can only give us confidence moving forward. All in all, I thought we executed very well today.”

Post Match Interview vs. Fiji with Massiah from Peter Della Penna on Vimeo.

USA will take on Bahrain at the Army School Ground on Sunday in Kathmandu before having a rest day on Monday. The match is scheduled to start at 10:15 pm EST on Saturday night in America with live coverage on Dreamcricket.com as conditions permit. 

More picture links:

Official Scorecard
ICC World Cricket League Division Five
Fiji vs. USA
USA won by 285 runs
Fiji won the toss and elected to field
Man of the Match: Steve Massiah

USA Batting
Batsman		Runs	Balls	4s	6s	Dismissal
CD Wright		1	1	0	0	runout (Ravoka)
OM Baker+		46	74	5	0	LBW Cakacaka
SJ Massiah*		74	80	9	1	runout (Rika)
LJ Cush		50	54	4	3	ct Browne b Balelcicia
A Thyagarajan		39	38	6	0	b Balelcicia
RA Marshall		61	28	8	4	ct Yabaki b Balelcicia
TP Allen		32	17	3	2	LBW Balelcicia
CH Williams		9	7	1	0	not out
S Verma		6	3	1	0	runout (Cakacaka)
I Awan			7	3	0	1	not out
Total Extras		28 (5 no balls, 9 byes, 3 leg byes, 11 wides)
Team Total 		353 for 8 in 50 overs

Did not bat: KG Darlington.

Fall of Wicket: 2/1 (Wright), 131/2 (Massiah), 150/3 (Baker), 234/4 (Thyagarajan), 
243/5 (Cush), 330/6 (Marshall), 330/7 (Allen), 339/8 (Verma). 

Fiji Bowling		Overs-Maidens-Runs-Wickets
V Yabaki		9-0-72-0
T Tavo			4-0-25-0
T Waqaituinayau	7-0-41-0
JV Kida		10-0-73-0
G Browne		2-0-13-0
I Cakacaka		10-1-33-1
JD Balelcicia		8-0-84-4

Fiji Batting
Batsman		Runs	Balls	4s	6s	Dismissal
J Bulabalavu		9	10	2	0	LBW Darlington
S Ravoka		6	13	0	0	ct Baker+ b Darlington
I Cakacaka		7	17	1	0	st Baker+ b Cush
T Sorovakatini+	2	8	0	0	LBW Allen
JV Kida		5	7	1	0	ct Marshall b Darlington
JD Balelcicia		13	60	1	0	not out
J Rika*		2	35	0	0	b Awan
G Browne		0	8	0	0	b Awan
V Yabaki		0	2	0	0	b Awan
T Waqaituinayau	1	7	0	0	LBW Verma
T Tavo			2	4	0	0	LBW Baker
Total Extras		21 (0 no balls, 8 byes, 1 leg bye, 12 wides)
Team Total 		68 all out in 28.2 overs

Fall of Wicket: 13/1 (Bulabalavu), 22/2 (Ravoka), 25/3 (Sorovakatini), 30/4 (Kida), 
38/5 (Cakacaka), 56/6 (Rika), 58/7 (Browne), 62/8 (Yabaki), 65/9 (Waqaituinayau), 
68/10 (Tavo). 

USA Bowling		Overs-Maidens-Runs-Wickets
KG Darlington	6-0-9-3
TP Allen		5-1-23-1
LJ Cush		7-3-7-1
I Awan			8-1-16-3
S Verma		2-1-3-1
OM Baker		0.2-0-1-1

Notes: Orlando Baker was USA’s wicketkeeper for the first 20 overs in the field. Carl Wright 
then became the wicketkeeper beginning in the 21st over through the end of the match.