Aditi Chudasama has taken a liking to facing the tournament hosts in Argentina, picking up her second Player of the Match award against them while collecting seven wickets across both matches in a pair of USA wins. 

File photo credit: Peter Della Penna

By Peter Della Penna (Twitter/X @PeterDellaPenna)
 
USA Women’s vice-captain Aditi Chudasama claimed her second Player of the Match award against Argentina in the space of three days to help restrict the tournament hosts to 63 for 9 before the Americans chased the total down in nine overs during an eight-wicket win on Sunday on match day five of the 2025 ICC Americas Women’s T20 World Cup Regional Qualifier at Club San Albano. Chudasama struck in her first over with the new ball before coming back and taking three more in the final over of the first innings to finish with 4 for 11 after having taken 3 for 8 in the first encounter between the two sides on Thursday. 
 
USA won the toss and elected to bowl first using an unchanged XI. Chudasama bowled the second over with the new ball and struck with her third delivery, getting Albertina Galan to drive at a wide delivery and edge behind for 1. The first of three runouts in the innings then occurred in Chudasama’s next over as a rare full toss was swatted by Lucia Taylor to Ella Claridge at midwicket, who initially misfielded. Taylor elected to run as the ball trickled not far from Claridge while Malena Lollo turned back to the non-striker’s end. After Taylor continued to charge for a run, Lollo belatedly set off and was well short of reaching the striker’s end by the time Claridge recovered and fired a relay to Anika Kolan behind the stumps at the striker’s end to dismiss Lollo for 2 to make it 6 for 2. 
 
Ritu Singh replaced Chudasama in the sixth over and nearly struck on her second delivery when Taylor offered a chance on 6, driving low to Tara Norris at mid-off where a difficult chance was put down diving forward. Singh struck on the very next ball though as Maria Castineiras came on strike and sliced a cut to Chetnaa Prasad at cover for a five-ball duck to make it 12 for 3. Prasad then got into the act with the ball in the 10^thover, getting Taylor to cut to Isani Vaghela at backward point for 14 to make it 23 for 4. 
 
The second runout of the innings occurred two balls after the midway drinks break when Argentina captain Alison Stocks drove a full ball back toward legspinner Saanvi Immadi, who deflected the ball toward mid-off while attempting to field in her follow through. Stocks set off after the carom dribbled away from Immadi while non-striker Mariana Martinez was stuck ball-watching as the ball made its way toward Norris charging in from the edge of the ring at mid-off. Martinez eventually set off but Norris had plenty of time to field and skid a one-bounce throw to Kolan at the striker’s end, who took the bails off with Martinez several yards short for a second-ball duck to make it 27 for 5. The final runout of the innings happened off the last ball of the 16^th when Maria Lehmann drove Vaghela straight to extra cover and set off on contact. Prasad made a routine collection and relayed to Vaghela over the non-striker’s stumps to dismiss Lehmann for 5 making it 41 for 6 with four overs to go. 
 
Stocks and Tamara Basile added 17 across the next three overs for Argentina’s largest partnership of the innings before Chudasama dismantled the lower order in the final over. On the first ball of the sequence, Basile fell for 13 when she edged behind an attempted cut. Stocks went for a top score of 16 off 46 balls on the fourth delivery of the over when she was beaten in flight and stumped after charging down the wicket. No. 10 batter Patron Fuentes scored a two off her first delivery before skying a slog on the final ball of the innings that swirled behind the non-striker’s stumps long enough for Chudasama to backpedal and take a routine catch. 
 
Aside from Chudasama’s haul, fellow offspinners Singha and Prasad ended with 1 for 3 and 1 for 7 in their two overs apiece respectively. Norris and Immadi were the only two bowlers besides Chudasama to bowl a complete quota, conceding 0 for 10 and 0 for 11 respectively. Geetika Kodali was USA’s most expensive bowler on the day, giving away 0 for 12 off her two overs. 
 
USA approached the chase in an aggressive manner trying to wrap up a victory quickly to keep their superior net run rate advantage intact. Disha Dhingra ran herself out on 9 in the fourth over after setting off on contact on a drive straight to extra cover. Chetna Reddy Pagydyala turned Dhingra back and a relay from Castineiras to wicketkeeper Lollo was in plenty of time to make it 19 for 1. After a boundary off her second ball, Claridge fell for 5 on the subsequent delivery when she was beaten by sharp turn after a charge down the wicket to be bowled by Galan making it 29 for 2 in the fifth. 
 
But Pagydyala and Kolan steered USA across the line with a 35-run partnership across the following 4.4 overs. Only one boundary was struck across the stand, a drive by Kolan over mid-off in the ninth over. But they maintained efficiency with superb running between the wickets in which they ran two runs a total of seven times: four consecutive deliveries by Kolan in the sixth over, and three consecutive balls struck by Pagydyala in the seventh over. The only chance in the stand came when Pagydyala skied a drive on 10 off Galan in the fifth over, but Basile and Taylor collided while going for the chance at mid-off and the ball popped out onto the ground. 
 
The winning run came on what was officially the start of the 10^th over by Stocks, who sent down a leg side wide to Pagydyala with scores level. Pagydyala finished unbeaten on 22 off 26 balls while Kolan ended 19 not out off 14 balls. Galan finished with 1 for 22 off her four overs with the new ball to be Argentina’s top bowler on the day. 
 
In the day’s other match, Canada grinded out a 29-run win over Brazil. Canada was bowled out for 82 in 19.2 overs, but Brazil could only manage 53 for 8 in reply and hit just one boundary in the chase. Monnike Machade top-scored with 12 not out off 30 balls after entering at No. 7.
 
Sunday’s results mean that USA and Canada both have 8 points at the top of the table, but USA holds a tiebreaker net run rate advantage of +3.148 to Canada’s +1.229. In the highly unlikely event of rain on Monday resulting in a washout of the final day’s matches, it means USA would win the tournament and advance to the global qualifier. Otherwise, the equation is simple for both USA and Canada in their final-day showdown: win the match and advance to the Women’s T20 World Cup Global Qualifier.