Despite 61 runs from captain Ibrahim Khaleel, #TeamUSA have lost to Kent by 27 runs in their 4th match of this year’s Cricket West Indies Super 50 festival in Antigua.
Earlier in the day U.S. skipper Ibrahim Khaleel won the toss and inserted Kent on what looked to be another good batting track. As has been the case in every match of the series to date the opening bowlers for the U.S. started very well, with Elmore Hutchinson once again getting the early break through, Bell-Drummond sent on his way second ball of the innings for a duck. Netravalkar from the other end was proving very hard to score off, with his opening spell of 6 overs conceding only 7 runs, and including the wicket of Dickson for 18.
Both Timil Patel and Adil Bhatti did a great job in the middle overs, Bhatti bowling with some rhythm and fire which was rewarded with the wicket of Crawley just as he and Denly were building a dangerous looking partnership. Patel bowled with tremendous control, with his spell bookended by a couple of stumpings to finish with 2/35 from his 10 overs.
A wonderful team bowling effort led by Elmore Hutchinson, Timil Patel and Roy Silva has restricted Kent to 215 for 9 from their 50 overs
Can USA chase it down to score a first win in the 2018 Super50?
Scorecard?: https://t.co/7bUAu9esPA #WeAreUSACricket pic.twitter.com/7C84V9faSw
— USA Cricket (@usacricket) February 8, 2018
Meanwhile Kent skipper Joe Denly continued to go about his business, and finally found a willing partner in wicketkeeper Adam Rouse. The pair came together with the United States arguably on top at 122/5 and set about changing the momentum of the innings with a run a ball partnership. Rouse in particular was the aggressor, often stepping across his stumps whilst looking to blast the ball into the leg side.
Kent brought up their 200 in the 46th over, and with Denly approaching his century, they looked well placed to push their total towards 250. However, Roy Silva coming back for his second spell rewarded his skipper’s faith by uprooting Denly’s leg stump, the Kent skipper falling 4 runs short of his century. In the next over Hutchinson also found the stumps, Rouse stepping across his wicket and looking to be inventive one time too many.
The golden arm of Roy Silva nabbed another couple of scalps in the closing overs, and the U.S. did exceptionally well to restrict the Kent side to 215/9.
Sunny Sohal was dismissed early in the chase, but Jaskaran Malhotra and Xavier Marshall looked comfortable at the crease, scoring at the required rate with ease whilst they were together. Unfortunately, Marshall misread a wrongun from Joe Denly in the 13th over and was adjudged LBW padding up, and shortly afterwards Malhotra was runout attempting a second run.
This brought Khaleel and Timil Patel together at 56/3. Together they put on a 64 run partnership, but neither batsman was able to find any fluency, and the required rate continued to climb. Consequently, once Patel was dismissed, wickets fell at regular intervals. The incoming batsman faced growing pressure to find the fence, but to a man were unable to execute against a professional Kent bowling and fielding outfit.
USA have been coming closer in each match to that elusive first win in Group B of the Super50 and next up on Saturday, it will be their second match against the Leewards Islands Hurricanes to try and get off the mark in Antigua.
So that completes the first half of matches in Group B of the Super50 for #TeamUSA??
The second half starts v Leeward Islands Hurricanes on Saturday at 9am local time and USA will be looking to build on the improvements from each match to take their 1st win#WeAreUSACricket pic.twitter.com/LItIG59OC7
— USA Cricket (@usacricket) February 8, 2018
