Rahkeem Cornwall’s belligerent knock of 132 n.o off only 93 deliveries took the steam out of USA’s charge in their opening Group B match against Leeward Islands Hurricanes in the Cricket West Indies Super50 Regional tournament in Antigua.
USA started well when they got both Kieran Powell & Marlon Samuels within the first 10 overs to have Leeward Islands at 27/2 but Devon Thomas (32 off 37) gave good support to Cornwall for the 3rd wicket. USA bowlers came back in the game picking some more wickets and at 168/6, they looked like restricting Leeward Islands to a lesser total.
However, Cornwall took over the proceedings from there and in the company of Jeremiah Louis (30 off 33), added 114 runs for the 7th wicket with Leeward Islands losing some wickets in the final overs to finish at 298/8.
Elmore Hutchinson was the most effective bowlers for USA picking up 3/43 with Saurabh Netrawalkar (2/45) & Timil Patel (2/76) getting among the wickets.
USA got off a poor start as they lost Sunny Sohal for a first-ball duck. Star batsmen from 2017 US Open T20, Jaskaran Malhotra (47 off 73) and Xavier Marshall (40 off 51) added 87 runs for the 2nd wicket but after the dismissal of Marshall, none of the remaining batsmen could add up much to the teams total as they got bowled out for 142 in 39 overs.
Akeal Hosein picked up a 5-for giving away only 26 runs in his spell of 8.5 overs while Rahkeem followed his batting heroics by picking up 3/27.
USA play their next group match against Guyana Jaguars on Friday.
