United States of America (USA) achieved what they set out for when travelling to Oman for ICC World Cricket League (WCL) Division 3, and that is to claim one of the two qualification spots into WCL Division 2 in 2019 in Namibia.
This is the first time in USA cricket history in the WCL tournaments, that they have reached Division 2 and have done that quite emphatically by winning four of their five matches in the tournament, their only loss coming against the tournament winners, Oman.
The experience of having played in Oman in 2017 and playing competitive 50-overs matches in the Cricket West Indies regional Super50 provided USA players the perfect tune-up prior to competing in Division 3 and now the squad will chase for bigger laurels in Division 2.
For USA have the chance to compete and claim one of the four qualification spots into ICC Cricket World Cup (CWC) League 2 and get ODI status and a position in ICC ODI team rankings. The qualification from Division 2 will also mean that USA will be one more step closer to competing for a place in the 2022 ICC Cricket World Cup qualifiers in League 2 (need to finish in top 3 to qualify directly or finish in top 2 in the Qualifiers play-off tournament).
If they do qualify for League 2, it will be one of the biggest achievement in the history of USA cricket after their maiden ODI appearance in the 2004 Champions Trophy in England. A major ICC League or tournament have eluded USA cricket ever since and Head Coach Pubudu Dassanayeke will know that the road ahead will only get more tougher.
One the day that mattered, USA came up triumphs over Singapore by registering a 5-wicket win to secure their qualification from Division 3 in Oman. Singapore, thus get into ICC CWC Challenge League along with Kenya, Denmark and Uganda from the tournament.
Brief Scores:
Singapore 161 all out in 43.1 overs (Aritra Dutta 30, Rezza Gaznavi 21, Anish Paraam 20, Janak Prakash 19, Saurabh Netravalkar 3/19, Timil Patel 2/28, Hayden Walsh Jr 2/37, Nosthush Kenjige 2/38) lost to USA 162/5 in 25.5 overs (Jaskaran Malhotra 66 n.o, Jannisar Khan 24, Steven Taylor 23, Aaron Jones 22, Abhiraj Singh 2/24, Janak Prakash 1/57) by 5 wickets
