Italy dealt a blow to the USA’s Pepsi ICC World Cricket League Division 4 (WCL Div. 4) campaign today by defeating the side by 51 runs at Medicina.
Gayashan Munasinghe of Italy had 3 for 29. Photo courtesy of ICC.
In the other two fixtures of the day, Nepal made amends for yesterday’s loss by defeating Argentina by eight wickets while Tanzania claimed its second victory of the tournament this time beating the Cayman Islands.
At Medicina, Italy continued to prove its talent with the bat scoring an impressive 212 in its allotted overs against the USA. Peter Petricola made amends for his early departure yesterday for two against Argentina, by striking a 127-ball 85, including four boundaries and hitting one six before being stumped by the USA’s feisty wicketkeeper, Carl Wright.
Andy Northcote added another dazzling performance for the Italians contributing 72 runs to the total. It was up to USA’s Kevin Darlington and Lennox Cush to claim the majority of the wickets.
Cush, who next month will feature for Guyana in the Champions League Twenty20 in South Africa, claimed 3-49 in his 10 overs, including two maidens, and clean bowled the Italy captain Alessandro Bonora for a duck.
USA stuttered in response to the Italy’s total, Sushil Nadkarni who in the team’s previous outings had struck half-centuries departed for a second ball duck after being adjudged leg-before off the bowling of Gayashan Munasinghe.
Things went from bad to worse for the side when Orlando Baker departed three overs later leaving the WCL Div. 5 qualifiers 2-12 and Cush departed a ball later having scored just one run.
By the 24th over the side were 71-5 and struggling against the tight bowling of Munasinghe and Dilan Fernando.
The only bright point of the USA innings was the performance of Aditya Thyagarjan who struck a half-century before being stumped by Nic Northcote. The rest of the lower order failed to fire and it was all over when Darlington departed for 10 having been run out by Petricola.
Man of the match Petricola said, “It was great to beat the USA today, a side that is particularly strong. I felt today was real team effort by us all in the field and it felt particularly great to bounce back after our first game defeat at the hands of Nepal.
“Our batting showed good strength and depth and I’m proud of the fact I managed to add a few runs to our final total today.
“I was also happy with how we performed as a side in the field, we kept our bowling tight and I was thrilled with my team-mates overall performance”.
At Bologna, the day started well for the Nepal side when it dismissed Argentina’s opening batsman Matias Paterlini just four runs into the game. The 32-year-old was caught behind off the bowling of Amrit Bhattarai.
As the heat began to increase at the ground, Grant Dugmore and Martin Siri added important runs to the scoreboard but the latter’s departure after having his stumps cleared up by Nepal captain Paras Khadka meant it was up to Alejandro Ferguson to step up to add runs for Argentina.
Ferguson made a star turn for the Argentina side top scoring at the Bologna ground with 83 runs in an innings that featured seven boundaries and four sixes by the 32-year-old wicketkeeper. His performance was not enough though as the Nepalese batsmen found form after yesterday’s batting collapse against Tanzania.
Anil Mandal smashed his way to 60, hitting the ball out of the ground and into the surrounding fields on three occasions and striking the boundary seven times before departing to a diving catch at mid-off by Argentina captain Esteban MacDermott.
Debutant Pradeep Airee showed maturity for his 17 years striking an unbeaten 38, along with hitting the winning runs with a huge six out the ground off the bowling of Gary Savage. Khadka displayed his usual flair with the bat hitting an unbeaten 53 off 40 balls, the 22-year-old hit the boundary on nine occasions but he left it to his young batting partner to seal the victory.
Man of the match Mandal said, “I think we batted well compared to the previous two matches and I’m happy I was able to contribute to the team score.
“I felt we needed to see the new ball off first and once we’d settled in, I felt I could go back to my basic skills and hit the ball freely to put the runs on the board”.
“I think we have to be even more focussed tomorrow for the USA, they will come back stronger and we have to be ready to take on their bowling attack and ultimately claim victory,” he added.
Finally, Tanzania showed its batting skills against the Cayman Islands at Pianoro today with Seif Khalifa once again starring with the willow. The 22-year-old departed after 38 runs after a quicker ball from Cayman Islands’ captain Saheed Mohamed skidded low and straightened up to the left hander who clipped it off his pads and saw him given out leg-before-wicket.
Abhik Patwa contributed 39 but departed after he tried to smash the ball for six runs but instead saw his strike snapped up by Pearson Best on the boundary.
The Cayman Islands bowlers did not have a good day with the ball, Ryan Bovell and Conroy Wright were both expensive when it came down to the statistics.
Cayman Islands fought hard in the second innings to reach the high target set by the Africans but in the end the runs were just out of reach for the side.
Bovell and Mohamed worked hard for their 76 runs, as did Wright for his 25, but there was not the depth in the batting to combat the fast bowling of Khalil Rehmtullah and the medium pace of Harsh Ramaiya.
Victorious Tanzania captain and man of the match Kassim Nassoro said, “I’m really proud of the way we played today. Having lost our captain Hamisi Abdallah this morning due to injury, we really came together as a side and our game plan paid off.
“Our bowlers kept things tight and the batsmen made a solid total that proved too hard for the Cayman Islanders to make, it feels great to have our second win of the tournament and hopefully our good run continues”.
Please note the abandoned matches from Saturday will now be replayed tomorrow (Thursday) at the same grounds originally stated on the schedule. Therefore Nepal will face USA at Pianoro, Italy will take on Cayman Islands at Medicina and Argentina will play Tanzania at Bologna.
Score summary (day four):
Italy vs USA
At Medicina: Italy 212-9, 50 overs (Petricola 85, A Northcote 72; Cush 3-49, Darlington 3-36)
USA 161 all out, 41.2 overs (Thyagarajan 51; Munasinghe 3-29, A Northcote 2-22)
Italy won by 51 runs
Tanzania vs Cayman Islands
At Pianoro: Tanzania 197-9, 50 overs (Khalifa 38, Patwa 39, Nassoro 30; Wright 2-45, Bovell 2-43)
Cayman Islands 154 all out, 48.3 overs (Bovell 39, Mohamed 37; Rehmtullah 3-28, Ramaiya 3-30, Nassoro 2-35)
Tanzania won by 43 runs
Argentina vs Nepal
At Bologna: Argentina 193-8, 50 overs (A Ferguson 83, Siri 32; Alam 2-12, Gauchan 2-23, B Regmi 2-24)
Nepal 194-2, 32.4 overs (Mandal 60, Khadka 53 not out)
Nepal won by eight wickets
USA vs Italy Scorecard
| Batting – Italy 1st innings | Runs | B | 4’s | 6’s | S/R | |
| Patrizi | c Cush b Darlington | 2 | 9 | 0 | 0 | 22.22 |
| AM Northcote | c Nadkarni b Muhammad Ghous | 72 | 108 | 4 | 0 | 66.67 |
| NM Northcote+ | c †Wright b Usman Shuja | 1 | 8 | 0 | 0 | 12.5 |
| Petricola | st Wright b Cush | 85 | 127 | 3 | 1 | 66.93 |
| Crowley | b Darlington | 22 | 28 | 2 | 1 | 78.57 |
| Munasinghe | c Marshall b Darlington | 7 | 9 | 0 | 0 | 77.78 |
| Raso | run out ( Marshall/Wright ) | 9 | 7 | 1 | 0 | 128.57 |
| Kurukulasuriya | c Muhammad Ghous b Cush | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Bonora* | b Cush | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Arsakulasuriya | not out | 3 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 150 |
| Abeywickrama | not out | 3 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 300 |
| Extras | (b 0, lb 4, w 3, nb 1, pen ) | 8 | ||||
| Total | (50.0 overs , 9 wickets ) | 212 ( 4.24 runs per over) | ||||
Fall of wickets: 1 – 12 (Patrizi, 2.6), 2 – 17 (NM Northcote, 5.2), 3 – 138 (AM Northcote, 37.1), 4 – 173 (Crowley, 44.3), 5 – 195 (Petricola, 47.4), 6 – 203 (Munasinghe, 48.5), 7 – 205 (Kurukulasuriya, 49.1), 8 – 205 (Bonora, 49.2), 9 – 207 (Raso, 49.4)
| Bowling | O | M | R | W | NB | WD | E/R |
| Darlington | 9.0 | 1 | 36 | 3 | 1 | 0 | 4 |
| Usman Shuja | 5.0 | 0 | 21 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 4.2 |
| Cush | 10.0 | 1 | 49 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 4.9 |
| Baker | 5.0 | 0 | 21 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 4.2 |
| Nasir Javed | 3.0 | 0 | 19 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 6.33 |
| Muhammad Ghous | 10.0 | 2 | 25 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 2.5 |
| Massiah | 8.0 | 0 | 37 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 4.63 |
United States of America Innings
| Batting | Runs | B | 4’s | 6’s | S/R | |
| Nadkarni | lbw Munasinghe | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Baker | c †NM Northcote b Arsakulasuriya | 4 | 10 | 1 | 0 | 40 |
| Massiah* | lbw Arsakulasuriya | 17 | 21 | 2 | 1 | 80.95 |
| Cush | c Bonora b Munasinghe | 1 | 5 | 0 | 0 | 20 |
| Wright+ | run out ( Petricola/NM Northcote ) | 22 | 53 | 0 | 2 | 41.51 |
| Thyagarajan | c †NM Northcote b Munasinghe | 51 | 92 | 2 | 0 | 55.43 |
| Marshall | c Raso b AM Northcote | 19 | 12 | 1 | 2 | 158.33 |
| Usman Shuja | c Patrizi b Abeywickrama | 14 | 24 | 0 | 1 | 58.33 |
| Nasir Javed | c †NM Northcote b AM Northcote | 0 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Muhammad Ghous | not out | 6 | 13 | 0 | 0 | 46.15 |
| Darlington | run out ( Petricola/AM Northcote ) | 10 | 13 | 1 | 0 | 76.92 |
| Extras | (b 1, lb 5, w 10, nb 1, pen ) | 17 | ||||
| Total | (41.2 overs , 10 wickets ) | 161 ( 3.91 runs per over) | ||||
Fall of wickets: 1 – 0 (Nadkarni, 0.2), 2 – 12 (Baker, 3.4), 3 – 13 (Cush, 4.3), 4 – 26 (Massiah, 7.4), 5 – 71 (Wright, 23.2), 6 – 97 (Marshall, 27.2), 7 – 128 (Usman Shuja, 34.4), 8 – 136 (Nasir Javed, 35.5), 9 – 145 (Thyagarajan, 38.1), 10 – 161 (Darlington, 41.2)
| Bowling | O | M | R | W | NB | WD | E/R |
| Munasinghe | 10.0 | 2 | 29 | 3 | 0 | 2 | 2.9 |
| Arsakulasuriya | 8.0 | 2 | 31 | 2 | 0 | 4 | 3.88 |
| Petricola | 8.0 | 1 | 25 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 3.13 |
| Bonora | 6.0 | 0 | 31 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 5.17 |
| AM Northcote | 6.2 | 0 | 22 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 3.55 |
| Abeywickrama | 3.0 | 0 | 17 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 5.67 |
