Monank Patel's last appearance for USA was a Player of the Match performance against Pakistan in a famous win at the 2024 T20 World Cup. After a lengthy injury layoff, he returned with a match-winning ODI century against Canada. 

Photo credit: Peter Della Penna

By Peter Della Penna in The Hague (Twitter/X @PeterDellaPenna)
 
On his first match back for USA since the shoulder injury that ended Monank Patel’s 2024 T20 World Cup, the USA captain scored a brilliant unbeaten century to take USA to a total of 304 for 4 which wound up being just enough to hold off a furious late rally from Harsh Thaker and Dilon Heyliger as USA beat Canada by 14 runs at Voorburg CC on Tuesday in USA’s first appearance in the Netherlands since the ICC Trophy in 1990. Monank struck seven fours and five sixes during his 121 not out off 95 balls, including a USA ODI record-setting fifth-wicket partnership of 143 not out with Shayan Jahangir, to walk away with Player of the Match honors. 
 
“It was unfortunate the injury I got and I felt like obviously in T20 after that game I wanted to carry my momentum and my form and help the team and contribute for the team,” Monank said after the win over Canada while reflecting on the shoulder injury sustained off the field following USA’s T20 World Cup win over Pakistan in Texas last June. “It wasn’t in my mind during this tour but I was more excited to play the ODI format after one year. The last ODI we played was in Zimbabwe.”
 

USA was sent in after losing the toss to Canada with four players making their official ODI debuts. Three of them – Harmeet Singh, Shadley van Schalkwyk and Milind Kumar – had previously played T20I cricket for USA after making their debuts earlier in 2024. But Smit Patel was playing his first match of any kind for USA and sparkled after being asked to open the batting, finishing with 63 off 83 balls. Smit negotiated a testing first hour as Canada new ball bowlers Kaleem Sana and Jeremy Gordon generated significant movement. Nine of USA’s first ten runs came courtesy of extras, but Smit helped kickstart USA’s runs off the bat when taking advantage of a free hit in the third over, latching on to a short ball and pulling Gordon for six over midwicket. 
 
Opening partner Steven Taylor survived a tight lbw shout from Sana on 4 in the seventh over but began to find his own rhythm across the subsequent two overs bowled from the Paddock End by Gordon and Heyliger, driving them for four boundaries through point. Taylor’s innings and a 75-run opening stand with Smit finally came to an end in the 14^th over when a full and wide delivery was edged behind for 27 to give Heyliger a wicket and spark drinks. 
 
Monank arrived and batted the rest of the way for USA in a virtually flawless innings. He added another 58 for the second wicket with Smit before Pargat Singh’s part-time offspin claimed Smit by beating him through the gate on an attempted drive in the 27^th over. Canada then struck back-to-back blows in the 33^rd and 34^th overs to bring the match back even as Aaron Jones walked past a skiddy delivery from Thaker’s offspin to be stumped for 15 off the last ball of the 33^rd before Saad Bin Zafar trapped Milind playing back for a golden duck in the following over to make it 161 for 4. 
 
But just as he had in his last ODI tour at the 2023 World Cup Qualifier in Zimbabwe, Shayan Jahangir put on a superb display in a middle-order finisher role for USA upon entering at No. 6, steadying any nerves the side may have had in tandem with Monank and eventually ended unbeaten on 57 off 47 balls. 
 
Monank brought up his first 50 at a run a ball, reaching the landmark with a single in the 37^th over. But he only needed another 31 balls to reach his second fifty to bring up a third career ODI century and first since 2022 at Moosa Stadium in Texas. He only had nine dot balls in the latter stretch as he blitzed three straight sixes in the stretch. His only life came on 98 when a drive by Jahangir back down the pitch was fielded by bowler Sana in his follow-through before a spin around throw at the non-striker’s stumps for a runout chance at Monank missed and resulted in four overthrows to Jahangir.
 
Monank took another single off Sana in the over before another flick for one off Gordon in the 47^th brought up three figures. A boundary by Jahangir in the 48^th brought up his fifty off of 43 balls before Monank unleashed further carnage on Gordon and Sana, with a six off each bowler in the 49^th and 50^th put an exclamation point on USA’s innings. 
 
Zafar bowled superbly and went mostly unrewarded in a spell of 1 for 35 across 10 overs while Thaker’s offspin spell ended with 1 for 48 in 10. Pargat took 1 for 21 in four overs but curiously was not used further on a day when spin was difficult to get away compared to Canada’s pace bowlers, who all went for a minimum of seven per over. Heyliger’s 1 for 44 in six overs wound up the best of the Canada pace trio. 
 
In the absence of USA’s traditional new ball pair of Saurabh Netravalkar and Ali Khan, van Schalkwyk opened the bowling and took harsh treatment from Aaron Johnson, who got Canada’s chase off to a scintillating start by driving the 36-year-old out of the attack with a pair of sixes in each of his first two overs coming in from the Paddock End. Abhishek Paradkar replaced van Schalkwyk in the fifth and induced a difficult flat chance at mid-off on 22 which was put down by Jahangir diving to his left. Johnson then capitalized by hammering Paradkar for four more boundaries in the seventh over to take Canada to 50 for 0, out of which Johnson’s opening partner Aaditya Varadarajan had contributed just 3 runs. Varadarajan added just one more single before he was trapped lbw by Jessy Singh in the ninth by a ball angled in from around the wicket. 
 
Johnson brought up a half-century off 39 balls driving Harmeet Singh’s left-arm spin straight down the ground for his fourth six, but Harmeet continued to challenge him by tossing the ball up and it paid off as Johnson miscued another attempted drive for six two balls later only for it to float gently to van Schalkwyk at long-on, who took a catch 10 yards inside the rope for 55 to make it 71 for 2 in the 13^th. 
 
Johnson’s wicket sparked a slide of 49 for 5 and 59 for 6 by the time Zafar was dismissed to make the score 140 for 7 in the 28^th. Nosthush Kenjige had built up pressure by conceding just five runs in his first four overs of left-arm spin bowling in tandem with Harmeet before he struck in the 16^th, getting Dilpreet Bajwa to check a drive to extra cover where Jones took a sharp low diving catch. Canada looked like they were in the process of a fightback with new captain Nicholas Kirton and Pargat at the crease as the pair added 36 together but Kirton fell into a trap laid by Jessy, who struck with his first ball back for a second spell in the 23^rd over getting Kirton to pull to Jahangir at deep square leg for 14 in what was the start of a wicket maiden over. 
 
Kenjige then struck in each of the following two overs from the Pavilion End, first trapping Pargat lbw with an arm ball for 42 in the 24^th before Shreyas Movva’s attempted sweep in the 26^th wound up being miscued off a top edge that carried to Jessy diving forward at short fine leg for 1. Zafar’s arrival as a left-hander at the crease meant that Monank briefly took Kenjige out of the attack in a matchup play to use Taylor’s offspin. It only took one ball for the strategy to pay off as Zafar pulled a half-tracker flat to Paradkar at deep midwicket, who took an outstanding leaping catch just inside the boundary and maintained his balance upon landing to complete the dismissal for 7. 
 
Heyliger then joined Thaker at the crease and barring a brief spurt in which Heyliger struck 11 runs off Kenjige in the 36^th over, the pair inched along showing little sign that they would take Canada anywhere close to USA’s total. Heyliger also survived a controversial not out decision on 22 in the 37^th over when it appeared both live and on TV replay that his return drive to Harmeet had carried cleanly to the bowler, who immediately claimed a catch and celebrated for what would have been the eighth wicket. Standing umpire Nitin Bathi had his view obstructed by the bowler diving forward and after conferring with Rizwan Akram at the striker’s end, they allowed Heyliger to continue.
 
Just nine singles were taken off the next three overs as Canada entered the final drinks break at 187 for 7. Monank and Jahangir had added 102 runs across USA’s final 10 overs so the 118 that Canada required in the same stretch looked out of reach, but Thaker and Heyliger went on the attack when play resumed and proceeded to give USA a scare as USA’s fielding suddenly turned sloppy. Smit, who kept wicket for USA instead of Monank, put down a one-handed diving chance down the leg side off Jessy when Thaker was on 36 only to see the next two deliveries struck for four. In the following over, Thaker tapped a single that wound up resulting in three consecutive overthrows by three separate fielders to become an all-run four. A boundary by Thaker off Jessy in the 45^th brought up a half-century off 62 balls before Heyliger reached the same landmark one ball quicker in the following over with a single off van Schalkwyk. 
 
Twelve runs taken off Paradkar in the 47^th brought the equation down to 40 off the final 18 balls for Canada. But van Schalkwyk held his nerve to induce a flat drive by Heyliger to long-off where Milind held a sharp head high catch to end the innings for 56 and an eighth-wicket ODI partnership record for Canada at 125. With Sana’s arrival, Thaker began turning down singles to farm the strike and Canada entered the final over needing 23 to beat USA. Once again, van Schalkwyk’s change of pace resulted in a miscued drive this time skied well inside the rope to Milind again at long-off to dismiss Thaker for 77. Two singles and two dots followed to ensure USA would end up victorious before a last-ball six by Gordon produced the official final margin as Canada ended on 290 for 9. 
 
Kenjige returned USA’s best figures on the day with 3 for 37 in his 10 overs while Jessy bowled a phenomenal new ball spell before eventually ending with 2 for 52 in 10 overs including two maidens. Van Schalkwyk bounced back from a couple of expensive early spells to finish with 2 for 79 in nine overs. Harmeet ended with 1 for 54 in 10 while Taylor finished with 1 for 12 in four overs. Paradkar ended wicketless with 0 for 50 in seven overs of left-arm pace. 
 
USA has an off day on Wednesday before returning to action on Thursday at Voorburg CC when they take on Netherlands in the third ODI of the six-match tri-series. USA has never beaten Netherlands in five previous attempts across different formats dating back to their first encounter at the 1986 ICC Trophy in England, when USA was bowled out for 88 in a 10-wicket loss. Their most recent contest at the 2023 World Cup Qualifier in Zimbabwe resulted in Netherlands downing USA by five wickets after chasing a target of 212 with 6.4 overs to spare.