New York pacer Adrian Gordon finished with figures of 4/38 against Argentina. Photos by Shiek Mohamed.
Aditya Thyagarajan had a knock of 159 against Argentina.
At St. Georges Cricket Club underdogs Argentina won the toss and elected to field. Openers Sushil Nadkarni and Orlando Baker got the defending champions off to a reasonable start with an opening partnership of 49 runs with Nadkarni first wicket to fall. The USA suddenly fell into a hole with skipper Steve Massiah, international veteran Lennox Cush and Carl Wright failing to add much to the score.
Opener Orlando Baker blazed his half century in just 41 balls, but with a sudden collapse he had to change his approach and became the anchor for the turning point of the match. Joined at the wicked by Aditya Thyagarajan, with the score of 91 for 4, the two went on to what was a match winning partnership of 213 runs in 94 minutes. Thyagarajan the aggressor ended up with 159, while Baker scored 113. The USA ended their 50 overs at 347 for 6 wickets.
Any hope of Argentina chasing this target was quickly extinguished by opening pacer Adrian Gordon who removed the two openers for 23 runs. Gordon ended up with figures of 4/38. There was some resistance in the middle by Grant Dugmore who top scored with 64, including three sixes.
Donald Forrester (38) and Gary Savage (35) tried in vain to offer some support, but in the end the target was too mammoth for the South Americans who ended their 50 overs with 227/9.
Full credit to the Argentine squad for an excellent display of ground fielding; if it wasn’t for this the margin of victory of 120 runs would have been much greater.
Canada Wins over the Cayman Islands
Game 2 played at St. David’s pitted powerhouse Canada versus the rebuilding Cayman Islands. Canada won the toss and elected to field in a game reduced to 41 overs due to wet conditions.
The Cayman Islands could not handle Canada’s Khurram Chohan who captured 3/18. Skipper Saheed Mohamed scored a determined 51, but his side could only put 132 runs on board in their allotted overs.
Opposing captain Rizwan Cheema not to be out done, led the Canadians with an innings of 76 not out as they easily passed their target in a fast 20 overs, losing 2 wickets.
Host Bermuda Get off to Sensational Start
Host Bermuda got off to a sensational start, and eased to the target of 129 runs, set by the newly promoted Bahamians with 20.5 overs, and 7 wickets remaining to win the opening game of the ICC Americas div I competition in a game that was reduce to 49 overs per side.
After play was delayed for an hour due to early morning rain, the host team took full advantage of the overcast conditions after winning the toss and electing to field.
Fast medium bowler, Malachi Tucker (7-2-22-2) struck with the second ball, of the game, when Mark Taylor was caught by captain Hemp at cover.
The Bahamas soon found themselves deeper in trouble as the score slumped to 19 / 5 inside the mandatory first power play (10 overs).
Kevin Tucker with figures of(8-3-9-3) kept a tight line and length at the other end on a pitch that gave the new ball bowlers much assistance.
There was no letting up for the visitors as the home team kept the pressure on the Bahamians and introduced Spin, on a wicket that continued to favour the bowlers. Joshua Gilbert and Rodney Trott extracted considerable spin from the track and recorded figures of (8-1-27-2) and (7-0-30-2) respectively.
Only two Bahamian batsmen reached double figures, Narendra Ekanayake (58 runs, with five 4’s and one 6 in 79 balls), and Dwight Weakley (28 runs with two 4’s from 86 balls). Five of the visiting bats men failed to trouble the scores in a final total of 128 from (44) of the allocated 49 overs.
In reply the home team lost the wicket of opener Fiqre Crockwell for 5 ct Narendra Ekanayake off the bowling of Jermaine Adderley, with the score on 8 runs, and this gave the visitors some hope.
However a second wicket partnership of 51 runs between Jekon Edness, 22 with three (4), and Stephen Outerbridge, 36 with four (4), soon put the home team firmly in command of the game
The home team batsmen found the bowling and fielding to their liking and plundered the ball to every corner of the ground. However two more wickets would fall to the hapless Bahamians, but this did not stem the flow of runs.
Reports courtesy of ICC.