The ICC Americas Division 1 Championship kicked off on Monday in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, USA. The top two finishers at this event will be promoted to the ICC World T20 Qualifier to be held in UAE later in 2013.
Steven Taylor was named man-of-the-match for his 95 in the game against Cayman Islands. Photo by Shiek Mohamed
In the first match of the day, tournament favorite USA cruised to an easy 100 run victory against the Cayman Islands in the featured game of the day played at the Central Broward Recreational Park Stadium (CBRP).
Scorecard: USA vs Cayman Islands
USA won the toss and elected to bat in perfect conditions for cricket and slammed 185/5 from their allotted 20 overs. The left handed belligerent opener Stephen Taylor smashed the ball to all parts of the ground making 95 runs before he was caught on the long-on boundary. He hit seven 4’s and one 6 in an innings of power and skill. The USA batsmen took advantage of the conditions and the poor bowling performance of the Cayman Islands team. Nicholas Stanford stroked a polished 34 from 30 balls and Captain Orlando Baker put the finishing touches on the innings as he was run out on the last ball of the innings for a well-played 36 from 19 balls.
The Cayman Islands innings never gained momentum as wickets fell with great regularity, only Conroy Wright who had 36 from 42 balls put up any resistance as the USA completed a comfortable victory by 100 runs. USA’s Steven Taylor was awarded man of the match.
In the second game of the day at the CBRP Stadium, the USA secured another victory against the unlikely Suriname. USA won the toss and elected to bat and Steven Taylor continued from the morning game blasting 28 from 22 balls with four 4’s. He and opening partner Timothy Surujbally, who had 44 from 34 balls, put on 67 for the first wicket. The USA batters never allowed the Suriname bowlers to settle. Akeem Dodson with a man of the match performance made 54 from 40 balls. He had good support in the middle overs from Karan Ganesh, 27 from 19 balls, as the USA finished on 171/4 in their 20 overs.
Akeem Dodson made 54 from 40 balls against Suriname. Photo by Shiek Mohamed
Suriname soon found themselves in trouble with three wickets falling for 13 runs in the 3rd over. The innings never recovered from there and Suriname finished on 92/7 from their allotted 20 overs.
The first game of the tournament played at Brian Piccolo Park saw Bermuda face recently promoted Bahamas from the ICC Americas Division 2 Championship. Bahamas won the toss and asked Bermuda to bat first. After losing their captain Stephen Outerbridge without scoring, Curt Stovell and David Hemp scored steadily off some fairly ordinary bowling. They put on 153 for the second wicket before Hemp fell for 66. Curt Stovell batted through the innings for 71 not out and with a few big hits from Janerio Tucker at the end saw Bermuda post a total of 192-4. Albert Peters was the only bowler to show any consistency and picked up 3-26.
The Bahamas reply couldn’t have had a worse start with the Taylor brothers both out with only 3 on the board and it never got any better. Three players scraped into double figures but a dismal performance saw the Bahamas dismissed for a paltry 65. Malachi Jones was the pick of the bowlers with 3-6 and Curt Stovell was adjudged man of the match. Bermuda won by 127 runs.
In the second game of the day at Brian Piccolo Park, Cayman invited Bahamas to bat and they fared slightly better after losing Captain Greg Taylor II for 0. Marc Taylor and Ryan Tappin mixed watchful batting with aggressive hitting and then Jonathan Barry added a run a ball 13 to take the score to 83-3. From there it was a repeat of the morning as the last 7 wickets fell for only 14 runs, the main damage being done by spinner Alessandro Morris who picked up 6-13.
In reply the Cayman Islands reached 45-2 before the rain came and finished the game after 8 overs of the reply. The Cayman Islands won by 10 runs on the Duckworth Lewis. Ramon Sealy scored the lion’s share of the runs and finished unbeaten on 36. Alessandro Morris was awarded the Man of the Match for his 6 wickets.
Report courtesy of ICC.