A superb spell of 4 for 45 from Saurabh Netravalkar, and a well-paced 70 from Jaskaran Malhotra was not enough to give USA a second Super50 win today. #TeamUSA came up short in their final match of the West Indies Super 50 Cricket Festival against Jamaica Scorpions at the Sir Vivian Richards Stadium in Antigua.
The Jamaicans decided to bat first after winning the toss, and built their innings around 80 from opening batman Trevon Griffith, 40 from Steven Taylor, and a whirlwind 62 not out from Fabian Allen, which helped boost their score up to 259/8 off their 50 overs.
Despite Prashanth Nair snaring the wickets of Taylor and Brandon King in successive overs, and Roy Silva clqqaiming Griffith in the next, Jamaica put together a string of useful partnerships, denying USA the chance of gaining the upper hand at any stage. However, Jamaica never fully got away on the U.S., and at the break the thought of chasing 260 was not completely out of the question.
#TeamUSA?? close out their campaign with 80 run loss to Jamaica Scorpions in Antigua.
Full Scorecard?: https://t.co/PMQm0Fl8Lr
Good luck to all the remaining teams in the tournament and a huge thanks to @westindies for hosting us in the 2018 #Super50 pic.twitter.com/wngh5ip3Ro
— USA Cricket (@usacricket) February 18, 2018
Jaskaran Malhotra certainly did his part with the bat, scoring at the required run rate from the start of his innings, ticking the strike over consistently with ones and twos, and putting the odd bad ball away when it presented itself. The other batsmen struggled for fluency, with Ibrahim Khaleel’s 29 the next best, coming in a 50-run partnership with Malhotra.
A collapse towards the middle and lower order as the required run-rate spiralled and wicket fell regularly, but Prashanth Nair and Nosthush Kenjige did well to see out the 50 overs, 179 for 9 meaning the U.S. finished 80 runs short of the target in the end.
So plenty of positives for USA after 3 weeks of hugely competitive cricket in the Caribbean, but there is only the one win from their eight Group B matches to bring home to the U.S. With crucial ICC tournaments on the horizon providing a sole focus, the aim will now be to build on the learnings from the Super50 for #TeamUSA.
