Utkarsh Srivastava was named Player of the Match for his unbeaten 25 off 28 balls to go along with two wickets on a day where numerous players stepped up with significant contributions to beat Canada by seven wickets and clinch a berth for USA at next year's ICC Men's U19 World Cup for the first time since 2010. 

Photo credit: ICC/Peter Della Penna

By Peter Della Penna in King City, Ontario (Twitter @PeterDellaPenna)
 
After sitting through a frustrating five-hour and 10-minute delay after a botched job by the ground staff improperly covering the square to allow overnight rain to seep under the covers and onto the bowler’s run-ups and crease landing area, the USA U19 squad was bursting at the seams to take the field and produced a red-hot team performance for the ages on a bitterly cold summer day to restrict Canada to 92 for 9 in a 22-over reduced match before needing just 17.2 overs to haul down the target in a seven-wicket win on the final day of play at the 2023 ICC Americas Men’s U19 World Cup Qualifier at Maple Leaf CC in King City. 
 
The win meant USA and Canada both finished 5-1 at the end of the double round-robin event, but USA took the region’s lone berth for the 2024 ICC Men’s U19 World Cup by virtue of a vastly superior net run rate. It will be USA’s first appearance at the event since 2010 in New Zealand and their third appearance overall as USA will be going back to the same venue as their maiden U19 World Cup appearance at Sri Lanka in 2006. 
 
Despite there being no rain in the area since a two-hour thunderstorm the previous night that ended at around 12:30 am, both teams arrived at the field and sat for two and a half hours as tournament officials tried to find a solution to the problem which rendered the field unplayable. Following a 12:30 pm inspection, a short burst of rain arrived at 1 pm before two further inspections were made, the last of which came at 3:15 pm by which time ICC Umpires Emmerson Carrington and Jacqueline Williams deemed the field fit to begin play at 3:40 pm for a match reduced to 23 overs. 
 
In one of the most crucial tosses in USA cricket history, Canada U19 captain Jai Singh called heads and it landed tails. USA U19 captain Rishi Ramesh did not hesitate to declare that his side would field first. A faint drizzle returned periodically on and off before and just after the start of play, but the umpires kept the players on the field. Far more difficult for Canada to contend with were the bitterly cold and windy conditions, with temperatures hovering around 55F after they had been in the 70s throughout the rest of the tournament. 
 
From the moment they took the field, USA played with an unmatched level of intensity, saving their best for last at the time they needed it most. Left-arm pace bowler Arya Garg conceded just one single off his opening over and struck in the third, getting Jordan Mathews fending a back of a length delivery to Arjun Mahesh at backward point for 1 to make it 6 for 1. Garg would strike a much bigger blow at short fine leg in the fourth over bowled by Ateendra Subramanian. With Canada opening bat Yuvraj Samra under heavy dot ball pressure, an attempted flick for a single to Garg at short fine leg instead resulted in hesitation from both Samra and new partner Dilraj Deol – Canada’s leading scorer at the tournament – and Garg seized on the opening by firing a direct hit from 20 yards at the striker’s end to catch Deol several yards short for 2 to make it 9 for 2. 
 
Samra’s scratchy stay finally ended for 6 off 20 balls when an attempted flick against Subramanian into the leg side resulted in a leading edge that ballooned to Ramesh at extra cover for a simple catch to make it 15 for 3. Canada captain Singh arrived at the crease wearing a training jacket over his jersey, a tangible illustration of how uncomfortable the conditions were with the rain and wind intensifying as both he and his partner Ajayveer Hundal repeatedly had to stop to take their helmets off to clear their vision as a consequence of the stiff wind blowing rain sideways into their faces. The umpires opted to keep the players on the field until the 8.4 over mark as conditions became too disruptive to continue. Canada walked off the field at 29 for 3 having been unable to score a single boundary at that stage. 
 
After a 20-minute delay, the umpires brought the teams back onto the field with just one over shaved off and the match now a 22-over per side contest as ICC officials took the decision to extend the official cutoff time in order to see the match to its conclusion with no further rain forecast. As play resumed, the winds died down considerably and batting became easier, evidence by Canada’s first boundary of the match driven straight back through mid-off by Ajayveer off Aarin Nadkarni just three balls after play resumed. 
 
Singh tried to follow Ajayveer’s aggressive approach in the following over against offspinner Parth Patel, but driving into a stiff breeze blowing against him, a seemingly certain six off the bat hung up in the wind and stayed inside the rope at long-off for Bhavya Mehta to adjust and lunge forward late to hold onto a circus catch for 11 to make it 41 for 4 in the 11^th. Patel claimed his second in his following over when Ajayveer went back and across trying to flick into the leg side and was given lbw for 18 to make it 50 for 5.
 
Utkarsh Srivastava, who would go on to be named Player of the Match, entered the attack replacing Patel with more offspin in the 15^th over and struck with his second ball, getting Sagar Patel to slice another catch to Mahesh at backward point for 4 to make it 58 for 6. Ravi Nauth made 9 before he smoked a blistering drive off Nadkarni to Mahesh at extra cover, who knifed it out of the air for his third and by far best catch of the day to make it 75 for 7 in the 18^th. 
 
Yash Mondkar, who had arrived at No. 6 and tried to grind his way through the innings while desperately looking for a partner to rally with alongside him, finally fell for a top-score of 22 off 28 balls, skying a heave to Ramesh at extra cover for Srivastava’s second wicket to make it 84 for 8 in the 21^st. Patel returned to bowl the final over and induced a slog from Amalan Sivakumaran that found Ramesh at long-on for his third catch of the innings to make it 86 for 9 with five balls to go before Canada scratched out four singles and two wides to take their end total to 92 for 9. 
 
Patel was superb for USA finishing with 3 for 17 in four overs while Srivastava took 2 for 16 in his four. As for USA’s pace bowling unit, Garg’s tone-setting new-ball spell ended with 1 for 14 in four overs while Subramanian claimed 1 for 16 in five overs with a maiden. Nadkarni rounded of the attack with 1 for 26 in his five overs. 
 
USA’s opening pair of Prannav Chettipalayam and Bhavya Mehta started cautiously in the chase, nudging USA for ones and twos to take the score to 7 for 0 in two overs. Mehta in particular looked nervy with his total on 2 off 7 balls as Canada’s fielders and home fans lining the boundary grew raucous with their support. But a message was run out by USA’s drinks carriers in between overs from USA U19 head coach Asif Mujtaba, telling Mehta to attack while the Powerplay restrictions were in place for the first five overs of the reduced chase and kill the game off. 
 
What followed was an over that will go down as one of the most memorable overs on the batting side in American cricket lore. A back of a length delivery from left-arm pacer Yuvraj Hundal was muscled behind square leg for USA’s first boundary of the chase. Two balls later, Mehta walked down the pitch and swatted a length ball flat over wide mid-on for another boundary. Another drive over the top of mid-off resulted in three before Chettipalayam drove the next ball over the opposite side of the field at mid-off into the USA dugout for six in what wound up being an 18-run over. 
 
A three off the first ball of the fourth over by Chettipalayam was followed by another boundary cracked by Mehta. He finally fell two balls later for 17 off 14, heaving Nauth’s offspin into the wind where Samra took a simple catch at deep midwicket. But at 32 for 1 after just 22 balls of the chase, irreparable damage had been done. 
 
Ramesh entered at No. 3 and took a single off his first ball before he fell to the first ball of the fifth over when legspinner Sivakumaran replaced Hundal and induced a false cut for an edge behind to make it 35 for 2 as Canada tried their best to roar back to life in the field. But Mahesh sprinted to the middle at No. 4 ready to do business before Ramesh had even passed the non-striker’s stumps. Along with Chettipalayam, the pair rotated the strike superbly in a responsible 23-run stand with Mahesh manipulating his crease to find gaps in a tightly packed ring for ones and twos. The stand ended with Mahesh trying to remain positive, using his feet to come down the wicket but beaten by a ball dragged wider outside off stump from Rohan Garg’s left-arm spin and wound up being stumped for 12 to make it 58 for 3 in the 10^th.
 
At this stage, Chettipalayam was on 25 off 21 balls, but went into his shell against Canada’s spin tandem, blocking out his next seven balls. At the other end, USA vice-captain Srivastava took the onus to not let USA get bogged down. After a streaky edge off Garg went wide of the keeper through vacant slip for four in the 12^th, Srivastava remained positive by playing a series of superb sweeps to nullify Sivakumaran and Garg while keeping the scoreboard ticking. His second boundary in an eight-run 16^th over brought the target down to single digits while four runs off the 17^th over left USA needing just three runs to win with Chettipalayam starting the 18^th over on strike. 
 
After a dot on the first delivery bowled by Garg, Chettipalayam wound up and launched an elegant straight drive into the sightscreen for six to end the match as the USA bench charged the field, joined a short time later by the traveling USA parents section running on from their position on the south side boundary. Srivastava ended unbeaten on 25 off 28 balls to go along with his two wickets earlier to cement Player of the Match honors while Chettiapalaym ended on 36 not out off 39 balls. 
 
Sivakumaran ended with 1 for 19 in five overs while Nauth claimed 1 for 21 in his four. Garg finished with 1 for 23 in 4.2 overs while Yuvraj Hundal and Sagar Patel remained wicketless with figures of 0 for 24 and 0 for 5 in two overs each respectively. 
 
At the post-tournament presentation, Chettiapalayam was awarded trophies for Best Batter as well as Tournament MVP after he ended the event as the leading scorer with 384 runs at an average of 76.80 and a strike rate of 121.14. 
 
USA now has four-plus months to prepare for the 2024 ICC Men’s U19 World Cup in Sri Lanka, which is scheduled to be held in the first quarter of the year.