Day #1 ICC Cricket: USA Wins Over 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.
Full scorecard below, click ‘full screen’ for greater clarity:
For additional posts on the 2010 ICC Americas Division 1 Cricket Championship click here.
