Team USA’s master blasters power impressive victory over Bahamas
By Peter Della Penna
After Bahamas won the toss and sent Team USA into bat, Man of the Match Henry Wardley cruised to 73 off 99 balls opening the innings for Team USA, who posted 325/9 before bowling out the Bahamas for 76 in 34.2 overs to win by 249 runs in their first match at the ICC Americas U-19 Regional Qualifier at Maple Leaf CC in King City, Ontario.
“They were putting it full and I just tried to play my regular shots,” said Wardley. The left-handed batsman smashed six 4s and one 6 in his knock, including three glorious cover drives and a baseball swing to a full toss that was sent over midwicket for the lone six. He made the Bahamas pay for two dropped chances. Wardley was initially put down at first slip on 9 before a diving effort was grassed at long off on 41.
“He really did stabilize the innings,” said Team USA Manager Wesley King. “He wasn’t as aggressive as he normally is.”
Wardley’s opening partner, Abhijit Joshi, set the tone at the start of the innings, hitting the third ball of the match for four with a savage pull to the midwicket boundary. Joshi then settled down for a steady accumulation of 29 off 46 balls, which included two hooks over square leg for four, before he fell to Anwar Sawyer. Joshi tried to clip the spinner on the leg side, walked too far across his stumps and was bowled behind his legs, but not before the opening partnership with Wardley reached 82 in the 16th over.
The Bahamas struck again with spin three overs later when Ashmeid Allie accounted for Ryan Corns. Corns had scored four when he tried to heave a long hop onto the leg side, but only managed a leading edge back to the bowler. The captain Shiva Vashishat came on and scored a quickfire 15 from just 12 balls before he was caught and bowled by his opposite number Marc Taylor. Taylor flighted a delivery and Vashishat’s bat appeared to get stuck in the pitch as he attempted a drive.
Vice-captain Gregory Sewdial marked his arrival to the crease in style as he launched an aerial assault on the spinners from the Bahamas. He combined with Wardley to produce the second biggest partnership of the innings in a fourth wicket stand of 77. Sewdial alternated smashing sixes over mid on and mid off before smashing his fifth six over the bowler’s head and straight into the sight screen at the 15th Sideroad End of the ground. He brought up his 50 in only 35 balls.
Wardley departed in the 33rd over with the score at 193/4. Sewdial joined him a short time later trying to belt his sixth 6 off a full toss from Orlando Stuart and was caught on the long on boundary for 57.
The two new batsmen, Azurdeen Mohammed and Regis Burton, put on the third half-century partnership of the innings with some great running between the wickets and expert placement into the gaps. Burton departed for 29 and Mohammed for 43 as Stuart took two wickets in three balls to try and peg Team USA back at 281/7 in the 46th over.
Saami Siddiqui was out for 2 to make the score 284/8, but that did not stop the Team USA juggernaut as Salman Ahmad and Naseer Jamali feasted some more on the Bahamas bowling lineup. The final over was particularly costly. Stuart got Ahmad out for 16 with the second ball of the over, caught on the midwicket fence to get his fourth wicket. But on what should have been the final ball of the innings, he bowled back to back wides, including one that went down leg side and all the way to the boundary for five wides. When Stuart was able to bowl a legal delivery, Jamali put an exclamation on the innings, depositing the ball beyond the rope wide of long on. It was Jamali’s second six as he finished 20* and Yash Shah walked off the field with him 1* as Team USA posted a mammoth 325/9.
“The strategy was basically to make 300 runs or better, a run a ball,” said King. “We did very well today. I’m very proud of these guys and I’m looking forward to tomorrow.” The 18 runs off the final over hurt Stuart’s figures, but he still finished as the leading wicket-taker for the Bahamas with a respectable 4-79.
As dark clouds hung ominously overhead during the innings break, Team USA took the field and went about their business, determined to not become preoccupied with a potential weather interruption.
If the Bahamas were going to have any chance of challenging the USA total, their hopes rested largely on their captain, Taylor. However, those hopes faded away almost immediately when the left-armer Jamali struck in the first over, beating Taylor for pace as he tried to pull a ball to midwicket but only managed to hole out to Joshi stationed at mid on for a fifth ball duck.
Tarun Brown was joined by Allie and by comparison with Team USA’s innings, the two crawled to 25 for the Bahamas in the 9th over.
“Our mindset was to bat out the 50 overs,” said Brown. Allie was runout by a brilliant throw from the boundary by Vashishat. Brown tried to turn a two into three and Allie responded but was short of his crease when the keeper Siddiqui received the throw and whipped off the bails.
Salman Ahmad opened with Jamali and bowled a tidy five over spell from the 15th Sideroad End. He accounted for Jermaine Adderley, clean bowled trying to drive as the Bahamas number four bat was out for three.
Yash Shah entered in the ninth over to bowl his ten overs of left-arm orthodox spin uninterrupted. After bowling two wides in his first three balls, Shah settled down and ran off 22 straight dot balls to build pressure from the Pavilion End.
“The first over I was trying to get used to the Kookaburra ball,” said Shah. “I never played with the Kookaburra ball before.”
Vashishat came on from the other side in a twin spin attack and got Shridat Jadoo to loft one straight to Wardley at mid on for the fourth wicket, out for 0.
After a brief resistance was put up by Odane Tucker, Shah got his man, caught by Joshi at square leg for 14. Two balls later, Shah had Stuart stumped for a duck on his way to a double wicket maiden in the 25th over to leave the Bahamas reeling at 59/6. Corns replaced Vashishat from the 15th Sideroad End and set about imitating Shah by bowling a tight seven over spell of left-arm orthodox spin, which included the wickets of Rudolph Fox and Julio Jameson, both gone before they could get off the mark.
Jamali came back on for two overs at the end and speared a yorker into the pads of Adrian Dean to get him LBW for another duck in the Bahamas lineup. Ahmad returned as well and with his second ball, finished the match, clean bowling Anwar Sawyer to make it seven ducks in the Bahamas batting card. Brown was the lone bright spot for the Bahamas order. The opener finished stranded on 32.
Before the match ended, Team USA had a few injury scares. Late in the fielding innings, Burton sustained a knee injury while attempting to field a ball at gully. He remained down on the field for a few minutes before limping off the field. A short time later, Jamali came off with what appeared to be a migraine headache, but no confirmation on that. After the match, Burton was seen icing his left knee, but he said this was just precautionary and that he felt okay. They were replaced in the field by Muhammad Asad Ghous and Talha Zamir.
In the other matches on day one, Canada bowled out the Cayman Islands for 84 and won by 10 wickets. Argentina was held to 89 as Bermuda’s Christopher Douglas starred, taking four wickets for only four runs. Bermuda chased down the target in 13.3 overs with eight wickets to spare.
Team USA will be back in action again tomorrow as they take on Argentina. Cayman Islands will take on Bermuda and Canada faces off against the Bahamas in the other two matches from Maple Leaf CC. Matches are scheduled to start at 10 a.m. but there is a slight chance of late morning showers in the forecast for the Toronto area.
Unofficial Scorecard
ICC Americas U-19 Regional Qualifier
Maple Leaf CC, King City, Ontario
Team USA wins by 249 runs
Bermuda won toss and fielded
Team USA Batting Innings
Batsman Runs
A Joshi 29 bowled Sawyer
H Wardley 73 ct Taylor bowled Adderley
RG Corns 4 c&b Allie
S Vashishat © 15 c&b Taylor
GR Sewdial 57 ct Dean bowled Stuart
A. Mohammed 43 ct? bowled Stuart
RG Burton 29 ct Tucker bowled Stuart
SM Siddiqui 2 bowled Tucker
SR Ahmad 16 ct Tucker bowled Stuart
N Jamali 20* not out
YD Shah 1* not out
Total extras 36
Team Total 325/9 in 50 overs
Bahamas Bowling Overs-Maidens-Runs-Wickets
J Adderley 10-1-47-1
O Tucker 9-0-61-1
A Sawyer 3-0-24-0
M Taylor 10-0-55-2
A Allie 6-0-47-1
O Stuart 10-0-79-4
R Fox 2-0-11-0
Bahamas Batting Innings
M Taylor © 0 ct Joshi bowled Jamali
T Brown 32* not out
A Allie 5 runout (Vashishat/Siddiqui*)
J Adderley 3 bowled Ahmad
S Jadoo 0 ct Wardley bowled Vashishat
O Tucker 14 ct Joshi bowled Shah
O Stuart 0 st Siddiqui* bowled Shah
R Fox 0 bowled Corns
J Jameson 0 st Siddiqui* bowled Corns
A Dean 0 LBW Jamali
A Sawyer 0 bowled Ahmad
Total extras 22
Team Total 76 in 34.2 overs
Team USA Bowling Overs-Maidens-Runs-Wickets
N Jamali 6-1-24-2
SR Ahmad 5.2-1-8-2
RG Burton 1-0-7-0
YD Shah 10-4-14-2
S Vashishat 5-1-14-1
RG Corns 7-1-7-2
(This piece can also be found on Dreamcricket.com)
Thanks for your coverage of the tournament.
By: ecubed on July 7, 2009
at 12:35 am
My pleasure. The team really looked sharp today, except for a few dropped catches, but obviously it didn’t matter.
By: Peter Della Penna on July 7, 2009
at 3:15 am