By Dervon Wallace
On the back of an attacking century from talismanic opener Sushil Nadkarni, USA prove too much for Bermuda as they defeated them by 8 wickets with 83 balls to spare in game 2 of their 3 match 50-over practice series on 3/28/13 at the Central Broward Regional Park in Lauderhill, South Florida.
Sushil Nadkarni hit an unbeaten 100 retired against Bermuda. Photo by Shiek Mohamed
Bermuda who made two changes to their team from the previous game with Lionel Cann and Samuel Robinson replacing Malachi Jones and injured skipper Stephen Outerbridge won the toss and elected to bat on a pitch seams conducive for batting. The opening pair of Dion Stovell and Jason Anderson took advantage of some un-penetrated bowling by the USA opening bowlers of Timroy Allen and Elmore Hutchinson and race to 32 without loss off 5 overs as they share in an opening stand of 52 before off spinner Mohammed Ghous got the breakthrough with the first ball of his 4th over and 12th of the inning when he had Stovell given out LBW for 31 (38 balls 5×4) and four balls later had Tre Mandres caught in the covers by Usman Shuja for a duck to make it 52 for 2.
With a 71 runs 3rd wicket partnership from 107 balls between Anderson and David Hemp, USA must have thought they would be chasing over 250 but it wasn’t to be as the impressive Ghous again made the breakthrough when he clean bowled Hemp for a well played 40 (56 balls 4×4) and the writing was on the wall when the debutant former Queensland under 19 left arm spinner Josh Dascombe trapped Janerio Tucker for 5 and had top scorer Anderson 66(105 balls 9×4 and 1×6) caught to leave the score reading 149 for 5 after 37 overs.
Neil McGarrell got in on the act as he had captain Rodney Trott caught at mid wicket by Allen for 3. USA bowler including Allen and Hutchinson who bowled an impressive second spell held the scoring in check as Bermuda could only manage 11 runs for 2 wickets during the batting power play from the 36 to the 40th over and help by some innocuous batting was restricted to a partly 185 all out in 45.3 overs. Hutchinson finished with 3 for 30, Ghous 3 for 28 from his 10 overs, Dascombe 2 for 27 and they were a wicket apiece for Khawaja Shuja and McGarrell.
In reply Nadkarni who was playing his first game and leading the team as the selectors are yet to name a captain for the upcoming tour open the inning with former under 19 standout wicket keeper batsman Akeem Dodson who was looking to impress the selectors as he’s been getting a few stars but yet to make it count big time.
After a watchful start it was the almost certain selectee Nadkarni who after taking 8 balls to get off the mark found all the ordinary Bermudian bowlers to his liking as after surviving a run out chance on 28 in the 8th over he hit them to all parts of the ground bringing up his 50 from 38 balls with four 4’s and one 6 as USA with Dodson been a mare spectator rush to 71 without loss after 10 overs and the 100 coming up at the start of the 17 over.
With the score on 120 Dodson who did manage to find the boundary once was bowled by Trott for 27 from 44 balls. Nadkarni was joined by a captain probability Steve Massiah who must have been relinquishing the opportunity for some much needed batting practice and the pair of arguable USA best batsmen added 46 in 12.3 overs, Nadkarni in the process bringing up his century (105 ball, 12×4 and 2×6)
with a single to fine leg before immediately Retiring Out. Still needing 20 runs to complete the inevitable Massiah was joined by Aditya Thyagarajan and the fat lady was singing 25 balls later with Massiah getting some practice to be Not out on 44(65 balls 7×4) and Thyagarajan not out on 6. Trott was the only wicket taker finishing with 1 for 21 from 8.1 overs while Gregory Maybury 5 overs cost him 46 runs.
After the game Nadkarni told reporters he felt good and he was looking forward to the tournament and getting some international game time as he was working hard to put up a good show.
