By Peter Della Penna
With USA in deep trouble batting first at 55 for 5, Carl Wright and Aditya Thyagarajan guided their team to safety in a match-winning partnership as USA beat Jersey by 66 runs on day three of the ICC WCL Division Five Tournament at Tribhuvan University in Kathmandu, Nepal. Wright was named Man of the Match for his gutsy 76 while Thyagarajan top-scored with 83 for USA as the two combined to put on 118 runs for the sixth wicket.
Pic to the left: Carl Wright punches off the back foot as he got USA out of trouble to be Man of the Match. Courtesy Daniela Zaharia/USACA
“It wasn’t a matter of pressure, but it was just a matter of the situation and what you have to do in that situation,” said Wright. “I think with good support from Aditya, Dhani and the rest of the guys, we actually stuck it out and tried to see how much runs we could get in the situation and it paid off.”
USA won the toss and elected to bat first on a hazy and cool morning and were under pressure immediately. Sushil Nadkarni opened in his first match of the tournament alongside Orlando Baker, but Nadkarni didn’t last long as he chopped a good length ball from Matthew Hague onto his stumps to be out for 1 with USA’s score on 2. Steve Massiah came in, but also fell for 1 just nine balls later, edging a ball from Jersey captain Ryan Driver to Hague at first slip to make it 3 for 2. Lennox Cush, who had been red hot with the bat coming into this match, failed for the first time in the tournament as he edged one from Driver through to the keeper Bobby Minty and USA were struggling badly at 11 for 3 in the 7th over.
Driver could do no wrong when he snaffled a brilliant return catch off Baker, sending USA’s other opener back for 20 to make it 30 for 4 in the 13th over. It could have been even worse for USA as Wright was dropped on the sixth ball of his innings off a sharp caught and bowled chance to Hague when he had yet to score. But things did slide further when Sudesh Dhaniram was out for 9, middling one from medium pacer Jonathan Gough straight to Hague at square leg and USA were 55 for 5 after the first ball of the 23rd over. Visions of USA’s previous meltdown against Jersey in 2008’s Division Five tournament semifinal started to appear when Driver took 3 for 32 and Hague claimed five scalps to take Jersey past USA into Division Four.
But in stepped Thyagarajan with USA in a hairy situation, a scenario he has encountered on more than a few occasions. Once again he answered the call, teaming up with Wright to change USA’s fortunes. Wright took a long time to get going while trying to see off the opening spells of Driver and Hague as wickets were falling opposite him. With Thyagarajan as his partner though, Wright seemed much more at ease turning over the strike. While Wright played straight down the ground and off his legs to score the bulk of his runs, Thyagarajan deftly and repeatedly found the gap between point and third man to frustrate Jersey’s bowlers.
“That’s just my strength,” said Thyagarajan. “Whenever we are down, I always play to my strength.”
The two batsmen progressed steadily to take the score to 136 for 5 when the second drinks break was taken after 39 overs. Wright had just brought up his 50 off 102 balls in the middle of the 39th over and when play resumed, he showed he was hungry for more. They decided to take the batting power play at the start of the 41st over and Wright feasted immediately on Peter Gough’s off-spin, smashing him for back-to-back fours as part of a 13-run over. Wright started the 43rd over against left arm spinner Ben Stevens by lofting him over mid off on consecutive deliveries for another set of boundaries. However, Stevens got his man next ball, spearing one in fuller to get Wright LBW for 76, ending the century partnership to make the score 173 for 5.
USA turned this setback from a negative into a positive with immediate effect as Rashard Marshall came to the crease. Thyagarajan kept on chugging at the other end, bringing up his 50 with a single off his 60th ball faced in the very next over. Marshall scored singles routinely to keep the scoreboard ticking as well as give Thyagarajan opportunities to score some boundaries. But after scoring nine singles in his first 12 balls, Marshall was ready to unleash his fury on the Gough twins and Andy Dewhurst. The 27-year-old creamed five sixes in the next seven balls he faced to electrify the crowd of about 600 gathered at the ground. His outburst was primarily responsible for USA scoring 52 runs in their last three overs as the innings ended with an unbroken 80-run partnership in 7.3 overs. Thyagarajan finished 83 not out with seven fours and a six while Marshall’s 42 not out came at two runs per ball.
“Marshall and me have always played together when the team has been down and we always have a partnership,” said Thyagarajan. “There has never been one situation where one of us hasn’t scored. We always go and score. What I do with him is just try to get him back on strike and whenever I get a loose ball, I go behind it. I try to get him back on strike as much as I can because he just strikes the ball so well, as we have seen in this entire tournament.”
Pic to the right: Aditya Thyagarajan goes for another cut. He top scored with 83 for USA vs. Jersey. Courtesy Daniela Zaharia/USACA.
Jersey, who had the match firmly in their grasp in the first half of the innings, saw it slip away in agonizing fashion. USA’s bowlers came out and never let Jersey’s batsmen get away as the biggest partnership in reply was 42 runs. Kevin Darlington made the first breakthrough, having Hague caught behind by Wright for 6 to make it 15 for 1 in 7 overs. After a couple of nervous drops in the field, USA tightened the screws as Massiah employed the off-spin of Dhaniram paired with Baker’s medium pace. Lennox Cush then came on after the runs dried up and struck on his third ball, trapping Dean Morrison LBW for 36 on an attempted sweep to make it 67 for 2 in the 23rd over. Cush struck again in his next over as he fired in a flatter delivery to beat Peter Gough in flight coming down the pitch and Wright completed the stumping to have Gough out for 24 with Jersey falling further behind at 76 for 3.
Driver tried to lift his team up as he came out to join Sam De La Haye, but Darlington came on for a second spell and after being hit for six by De La Haye, bowled him next ball for 36 to make it 118 for 4. Saurabh Verma then came on to bowl the new batsman Stevens for 2 to make it 128 for 5. Driver tried to rebuild once more with Dewhurst as they put on 41 runs, but Cush came back for another double-strike as Driver tried to clear the ropes but was caught for 29 at long off by Thyagarajan. Three balls later, Cush had Minty out stumped for a golden duck and at 172 for 7 in the 46th over, Jersey saw their dreams of going back to Division Four vanishing into Nepal’s thin mountain air. Verma took two more wickets but Jersey’s last two men stayed until the end to prevent USA from bowling them out, finishing at 187 for 9 in their 50 overs.
USA is now 3-0 in the tournament along with Nepal, who beat Bahrain on Monday by 8 wickets. Singapore stayed in third place at 2-1 with a tight two-wicket win over Fiji. USA will play Singapore on Tuesday morning at the Pul Chowk Engineering College in Kathmandu. Live coverage of USA’s matches continues on Dreamcricket with play scheduled to start at 10:15 pm EST on Monday night in America.
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Official Scorecard
ICC WCL Division Five
Jersey vs. USA
USA won by 66 runs
USA won the toss and elected to bat
Man of the Match: Carl Wright
USA Batting
Batsman Runs Balls 4s 6s Dismissal
SS Nadkarni 1 7 0 0 bowled Hague
OM Baker 20 31 1 0 ct & b Driver
SJ Massiah* 1 6 0 0 ct Hague b Driver
LJ Cush 5 15 1 0 ct Minty+ b Driver
CD Wright+ 76 120 7 1 LBW Stevens
S Dhaniram 9 19 1 0 ct Hague b J Gough
A Thyagarajan 83 82 7 1 not out
RA Marshall 42 21 0 5 not out
Total Extras 16 (1 no ball, 1 bye, 3 leg byes, 11 wides)
Team Total 253 for 6 in 50 overs
Did not bat: TP Allen, S Verma, KG Darlington.
Fall of wicket: 2/1 (Nadkarni), 3/2 (Massiah), 11/3 (Cush), 30/4 (Baker), 55/5 (Dhaniram), 173/6 (Wright).
Jersey Bowling Overs-Maidens-Runs-Wickets
R Driver 10-1-25-3
M Hague 10-1-23-1
J Gough 9-0-58-1
B Stevens 10-1-48-1
P Gough 8-0-60-0
A Dewhurst 2-0-28-0
S Dewhurst 1-0-7-0
Jersey Batting
Batsman Runs Balls 4s 6s Dismissal
D Morrison 36 82 2 0 LBW Cush
M Hague 6 20 1 0 ct Wright+ b Darlington
P Gough 24 41 2 0 st Wright+ b Cush
S De La Haye 36 32 2 3 b Darlington
R Driver+ 29 52 2 0 ct Thyagarajan b Cush
B Stevens 2 18 0 0 b Verma
A Dewhurst 34 32 5 0 b Verma
R Minty+ 0 1 0 0 st Baker+ b Cush
J Gough 5 11 0 0 b Verma
I Crocker 1 9 0 0 not out
S Dewhurst 0 3 0 0 not out
Total Extras 14 (1 no ball, 7 byes, 2 leg byes, 4 wides)
Team Total 187 for 9 in 50 overs
Fall of wicket: 15/1 (Hague), 67/2 (P Gough), 76/3 (Morrison), 118/4 (De La Haye), 128/5 (Stevens), 169/6 (Driver), 172/7 (Minty), 183/8 (A Dewhurst), 186/9 (J Gough).
USA Bowling Overs-Maidens-Runs-Wickets
KG Darlington 10-1-40-2
TP Allen 5-0-17-0
S Dhaniram 10-2-30-0
OM Baker 10-1-34-0
LJ Cush 10-1-37-4
S Verma 4-0-19-3
SJ Massiah 1-0-1-0
Notes: Carl Wright was USA’s wicketkeeper for the first 43 overs in the field. Orlando Baker then padded up to keep wicket for the final 7 overs of the match.