New Jersey's Sai Mukkamalla became the fourth USA men's player to score a half-century on T20I debut, and the youngest to do so at age 20, to lay the platform for USA's seventh straight T20I win over Canada in 2024. 

File photo credit: Peter Della Penna

By Peter Della Penna (Twitter/X @PeterDellaPenna)
 
New Jersey opener Sai Mukkamalla became the youngest USA men’s player to score a half-century on T20I debut, and the fourth overall to do so, to set up USA’s total of 168 for 6 which wound up being just enough to hold off Canada in a 20-run win at Voorburg CC on Tuesday afternoon. Mukkamalla struck eight fours and a six, bringing up his half-century off 25 balls with his final boundary before getting out two balls later. 
 
The 20-year-old Mukkamalla joined fellow squad members Steven Taylor (v UAE in 2019) and Andries Gous (v Canada in April 2024) in notching a half-century on T20I debut while Sushant Modani (December 2021 v Ireland) is the other men’s player to do it on T20I debut. Two other men’s players, Gajanand Singh (v Argentina in November 2021) and Nitish Kumar (v Canada in April 2024) achieved the feat in their first T20I innings for USA though it was not their T20I debut match. 
 
Mukkamalla came into the lineup in place of legspinner Yasir Mohammad in order to strengthen USA’s batting in the continued absence of Steven Taylor. Sources have indicated that Taylor has suffered ligament damage to his left knee following an incident while sliding in the field against the Netherlands in USA’s final ODI at Rotterdam last week and will be out indefinitely. 
 
Mukkamalla began off strike alongside captain Monank Patel, but got off the mark in the second over of play against Dilon Heyliger by striking a boundary over extra cover, then followed up two balls later with a lofted drive over mid-off for another four. He could have been out on 14 off the bowling of offspinner Harsh Thaker, but Dilpreet Singh Bajwa spilled a low chance at extra cover on a checked drive. The mistake was compounded on the very next ball when Mukkamalla struck another boundary before capping the over with one more. Mukkamalla took on Heyliger again in the sixth, pulling him over wide long-on for six to bring up a half-century partnership with Monank. The stand finally ended at 57 on the penultimate ball of the over and the Powerplay when Monank chipped a ball that stopped in the pitch and spooned a simple catch to Saad Bin Zafar at mid-on for 16. 
 
Mukkamalla brought up his landmark off Zafar in the 10^th over with a lofted drive that beat the fielder at wide long-off before getting out at the end of the over, skying a drive trying to repeat the same shot only to skew it toward Parveen Kumar at cover sweeper to make it 90 for 2 at the halfway point of the innings. Zafar switched ends to begin the 13^th and claimed Gous for 21 with a miscued drive that lobbed up softly back to the bowler to make it 98 for 3. Saad then completed his match-haul in the 15^th thanks to a brilliant piece of fielding by Shreyas Movva behind the stumps. Aaron Jones had charged the bowler and been beaten in flight before chopping a bottom edge to the left of the stumps. Movva fielded and then flicked one-handed onto the stumps with Jones unable to get his bat back across the line in time and was dismissed for 5. 
 
Zafar then took his third catch of the day to team up with Heyliger for his second wicket of the day as Nitish slogged to long-on for 14 to make it 134 for 5. Heyliger should’ve had two in the over but Bajwa committed his second drop of the day, this time a very straightforward skied chance at deep midwicket that allowed Harmeet Singh to survive on 22. 
 
Harmeet fell one ball later for 24 as an attempted heave across the line resulted in a top-edge that swirled over the pitch before Kaleem Sana took it off his own bowling to make it 140 for 6. Shadley van Schalkwyk and Shayan Jahangir added 28 runs across the final 10 balls to give USA a healthy momentum boost heading into the innings break.  
 
Zafar ended with 3 for 25 while Heyliger returned 2 for 50 in four overs respectively. Sana ended with 1 for 31 in his four while left-arm spinner Parveen Kumar was economical in his four overs conceding 0 for 22. Thaker and medium pacer Akhil Kumar ended with 0 for 22 and 0 for 13 respectively. 
 
Nosthush Kenjige bounced back from a rough performance in his previous outing against the Netherlands by striking with the third ball of the chase to remove Aaron Johnson for a duck after the right-hander was late on an attempted sweep. Three overs later, Kenjige made his presence felt in the field when he capitalized on a terrible mixup between T20I debutant Kanwarpal Tathgur and Bajwa that ended with both batters at the striker’s end and Tathgur runout for 3 after a simple relay from Kenjige to Harmeet Singh at the bowler’s end. Tathguy had actually been on strike to cut to Kenjige but briefly left his crease only to see Bajwa ground his bat across the line before him when the bails were eventually removed by Harmeet to make it 25 for 2. Kenjige struck again in the fifth over, getting Canada captain Nicholas Kirton for 4 after flicking loosely to midwicket where Nitish pulled off a sensational diving catch to his left to make it 31 for 3. 
 
Bajwa and Movva combined for a 68-run stand to keep Canada in the match as Bajwa took advantage of a missed runout chance when he was on just 20 as Nitish’s throw from mid-on was wide. He eventully brought up a 35-ball half-century in the 12^th over off Juanoy Drysdale. But the stand ended in the 14^th when Jones was brought on for his part-time legspin. Bajwa decided to attack him immediately on the first ball he faced against Jones but the plan backfired as he swung over a low full toss on an attempted reverse sweep and was given lbw for 56. Canada’s aggression trying to pick out Jones as the weak link in USA’s bowling unit wound up going awry again as another reverse by Movva wound up being middled straight to Monank at cover for 37 to make it 108 for 5. Jones could have had a third wicket in the same over but Jessy Singh spilled a chance at long-on when Heyliger was on just 1. 
 
Jessy spilled another chance, this time far more difficult, in the 18^th over when Thaker drilled a straight drive low in the bowler’s follow-through that clanged off of Jessy’s right hand reaching low. Canada entered the final two oevrs needing 33 off 12 balls to win, but van Schalkwyk bowled a tremendous 19^th, conceding just three runs while taking the wickets of Heyliger and Thaker. Heyliger fell for 20 when he skied a drive to extra cover that was safely held by Monank. Three balls later, Thaker fell for 13 when he picked out Kenjige at long-off. Jessy conceded nine runs off the 20^th over to produce the final margin of victory. 
 
Jones ended with USA’s best figures in the match, claiming 2 for 8 in his two overs of legspin. Kenjige returned 2 for 22 after bowling four straight with the new ball. Van Schalkwyk took 2 for 35 in his four while Harmeet was once again brilliantly economical to give away just 20 off his four overs. Jessy was USA’s most expensive bowler on the day going for 44 off his four overs while Drysdale gave away 17 off his two overs. 
 
USA returns to action on Wednesday at Voorburg CC when they take on the Netherlands at 2 pm local time.