Canada On Top of the Table After Beating USA

Scorecards: Canada vs USA | Bermuda vs Suriname
Canada maintained its unbeaten form with victory over the host country, USA on Monday. While in the afternoon match Bermuda notched their first win of the tournament in convincing fashion over Suriname.

Ravindu Gunasekera struck 51 in Canada win over USA. Photos courtesy of ICCAmericas

In the much anticipated morning match between the two undefeated sides, the USA got off to the start they wanted, with Steven Taylor and Fahad Babar combining for 51 for the first wicket. Babar continued his good form before finally being dismissed, for the first time this tournament, for 31 from 25 balls. After Stanford went cheaply for 6, USA continued their momentum through Taylor and Bhatti, taking the score past 100 in the 15th over. USA looked to have the platform to score in excess of 140, however, when Nihkil Dutta dismissed Taylor for a well-compiled 46 (50 balls), it sparked a collapse for the Americans. They lost 7 wickets for 20 runs in the last 4 overs, including 4 wickets in the last over to finish 127/9. Nitish Kumar created 2 great runs outs from the deep and Cecil Pervez again lead the attack clean bowling 3 batsmen in his last over, finishing with player of the match figures of 3-9 from 3 overs.

Canada took the momentum they gathered with the ball into their batting innings. As was the case yesterday, Rizwan Cheema and Ruvindu Gunasekera came out hard dispatching the US bowlers over the top early. Again though, Cheema could not go on with his positive start being dismissed by Ghous for 20 from 14 balls. His dismissal brought Nitish Kumar to join Gunasekera and the two combined well and took the game away from USA with some classy batting. The pair combined for a partnership of 74 but when Kumar (32) and Gunasekera (51) were both out in succession, and then Dhaliwal went for 0, it left the door slightly ajar for the USA. Experienced head Jimmy Hansra (16 not out) however steadied the ship for Canada and took them past the USA total with 8 balls to spare finishing 131/4.

In the afternoon game Bermuda’s experienced heads helped get some momentum into their campaign against Suriname. After Stovell (2) and Pitcher (8) fell cheaply for Bermuda David Hemp and Janerio Tucker put on somewhat of a master-class. The two veterans combined for an undefeated partnership of 90 with Tucker finishing 43 not out from 41 balls, while Hemp’s 72 not out from 57 balls earned him the player of the match award.

In reply, Suriname struggled from the outset. They consistently lost wickets throughout their 20 overs and were eventually bowled out for 55 after 18.1 overs. The only batter to make double figures was Gavin Singh who made 15. For Bermuda Stovell, Robinson and Gilbert all chipped in with two wickets. Bermuda’s comfortable win will give them some hope of rectifying their poor start and still progressing to the Twenty20 World Cup Qualifier.

Today allows teams to rest ahead of a critical second round of matches resuming on Thursday May 7th 2015.

Scores in Brief:
Canada v USA
USA 127/9 from 20 overs (S Taylor 46 F Babar 31, Pervez 3-9)
Canada 131/4 from 18.1 overs (R Gunasekera 51, Kumar 32)
Canada won by 6 wickets
Man of the Match: Cecil Pervez (Canada)

Bermuda v Suriname
Bermuda 144/2 from 20 overs (D Hemp 72*, J Tucker 43*)
Suriname 55/10 from 18.1 overs (Singh 15, Gilbert 2-4)
Bermuda won by 89 runs
Man of the Match: David Hemp (Bermuda)

Tournament Standings: