Canada and USA remain unbeaten, clash on Friday by Edward Norfolk

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Player:	Arsalan Qadir, R Gunasekera
Event:	Americas Under-19 Championship 2009

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DateLine: 9th July 2009

 

Canada, as expected, comfortably beat Argentina while the USA beat Bermuda in a key match featuring two of the three sides fancied to challenge for the top two places in the ICC Americas Under-19 Regional Qualifier. These results mean Canada and the USA go head-to-head with unbeaten records (3 wins, no defeats) on Friday at Maple Leaf Cricket Club, King City.

 

Canada scored an impressive 344 for nine wickets against Argentina. Opening bat Hiral Patel struck his third half-century of the tournament in notching 55. Captain Rustum Bhatti hit 65, Nitesh Kumar 61 and Arsalan Qadir struck 51 in the later overs. Qadir followed with 3 wickets for 12 and leg-spinner Ruvindu Gunasekera made a late, but highly successul appearance in the Canadian bowling. He took 3 wickets for just 2 runs as Argentina was bowled out for 75.

 

The USA will be pleased to have beaten Bermuda by 64 runs, but the coaches in each camp will surely focus on how each side seemed to be well on the way to scoring many more runs. The USA was going well, even after losing its second wicket at 128, but the efforts of Azurdeen Mohammed and Ryan Corns almost went to waste in a total of just 230, with several overs unused. Ironically, captain Terryn Fray and Chris Douglas were going well until Douglas mis-drove and was caught. A couple of overs later, Bermuda had spun to 132 for 6. There were no late heroics for Bermuda, whose 166 all out left the US winners by 64 runs.

 

Cayman Islands picked up its first win of the tournament, beating Bahamas by 8 wickets. Bahamas was bowled out for just 75 runs.

 

Thursday is a rest day, so on Friday Canada and the USA will meet in a game pivotal to both the Under-19 Regional Championship and for the two places in the Under-19 Global World Cup Qualifier to be held in September. The fifth and final round-robin games to decide the top two places are on Saturday, when the US would be expected to beat Cayman Islands, but Canada faces Bermuda.