Good morning on day four of the ICC WCL Division Three tournament here in Hong Kong. Peter Della Penna at HKCC where USA is warming up to take on Oman. It's slightly warmer than yesterday, but still cool overall. There's not a cloud in the sky and the sun is shining brightly, but there is a ton of dew on the ground and moisture in the pitch. It looks to be another bowl first day up in the mountains of Hong Kong Island. Toss and Starting XI's to come shortly. 

 USA has won the toss and elected to bowl first. Starting XI's to come shortly.

Good Luck Team USA.

Play with heart and passion. We can do this one.

Best Wishes (from India),

Ady 

 

big toss to win. I predict 5 wickets for Howard Johnson :-) However, Oman clearly bat in reverse order -- all the runs come from #6 to #10, so USA better not get ahead of themselves even if they get early wickets.

Good Luck to the Guys.

 

Abhemanyu Rajp

 Durale Forrest is making his debut today for USA, coming in for Howard Johnson.

USA XI: Massiah (c), Kadu (wk), Baker, Nadkarni, Cush, Wright, Marshall, Forrest, Khan, Shuja, Darlington.

Oman XI: Mehta (c), Ahmed (wk), Ilyas, Ali, Khan, Al Said, Desai, Rasheed, Kumar, Trivedi, Wategaonkar. 

Pass our best wishes & good luck to the team please Peter...!!! C'mon USA...!!!

 I would say this is do or die for USA today, but in reality it's more like a resurrection that is needed. Match about to start. Darlington to bowl to the explosive Hemin Desai.

journalist:

 Durale Forrest is making his debut today for USA, coming in for Howard Johnson.

USA XI: Massiah (c), Kadu (wk), Baker, Nadkarni, Cush, Wright, Marshall, Forrest, Khan, Shuja, Darlington.

There's a sick irony in Howard Johnson being 'dropped' after actually taking 2 wickets in the game yesterday. If he was in the team on merit, then he had to play again today. If not, then he shouldn't have played yesterday. Doing this just confirms what a lot of people suspected.

Hemin Desai has scored 12 in 11 balls, 62 off 30, and 29 in 13 coming into today's game. On the very first ball of the match, he drove at a good length ball, sending an edge that floated to Nadkarni at first slip at waist height... and he put it down. They don't get any easier. He then got to the other end and tonked Forrest for 6 and 4 over midwicket to start the next over. Oman 20/0 in 2.

 Need to restrict Oman to 200 to have a good shot at winning this one.  Above that, one of our batters has to score big.

 Kevin Darlington just broke leg stump in half. Desai went for another slog and missed and the stump exploded in two. So Nadkarni's drop cost them 28 runs to Desai and 42 runs in the opening stand. But at least the carnage is over now. Desai was dangerous. Big lift for USA in the field now. Cush is bowling decent. Oman's batting looked brittle yesterday. I was at KCC for most of their innings. Italy had them but just couldn't finish them off. Oman 48 for 1 in 8.

 R. Corns should have been in the team instead to up the run rate in order for USA to have a chance.

Denmark 24/5 (14.1 ov) vs Papua New Guinea... c'mon PNG... bowl 'em out...!!!

 USA is clawing back here, but they're not making it easy on themselves. Already four catching chances have gone begging. They dropped Wategaonkar twice on 5 and 14 before he was taken by Nadkarni at slip, and that was after he bobbled and nearly put it down again. Before that, Trivedi was run out when he pushed one into the covers and set off but got no response. Baker ran in and fumbled the first attempt to pick it up, which allowed Trivedi to run back, Baker scooped it on the second attempt and fired a direct hit that skipped off the ground and bounced into the top of the stumps to catch Trivedi just short. Kadu has taken a blinder diving forward to a bottom edge to get rid of the captain Mehta first ball. Mehta scored a century earlier in the tourney. USA heating up in the field. It's 66 for 4 in 15.