It came down to the final group fixture between Canada U19 and USA U19 in the ICC Americas U19 qualifiers at King City, and Canada prevailed yet again over their North American neighbours to qualify for U19 showpiece event, World Cup 2020 in South Africa.
USA and Canada remained unbeaten throughout the group stages after registering comprehensive wins over Bermuda U19, Argentina U19 and Cayman Islands U19. The match between themselves was expected to decide the winner and Canada U19 did the job by defeating USA U19 by 5 wickets.
Bermuda U19 finished 3rd in the tournament, with their defeats coming against the regional heavyweights, but were dominant against Argentina and Cayman Islands. Argentina registered their sole win over Cayman Islands to finish 4th in the final standings.
Ashtan Deosammy (Canada U19) was the top scorer in the tournament with 172 runs from 2 innings, followed by Eshan Sensarma (Canada U19) with 122 runs from 3 innings, Randhir Sandhu (Canada U19) with 101 runs from 4 innings, Dalin Richardson (Bermuda U19) with 83 runs from 4 innings and Luke Harrington-Myers (Cayman Islands U19) with 74 runs from 4 innings, to round up the top 5.
Raqib Shamsudeen (Canada U19) was the top wicket-taker with 12 wickets from 4 innings, followed by Raj Vyas (USA U19) with 11 wickets from 4 innings, Muhammad Kamal (Canada U19) with 7 wickets from 3 innings, Axel Horwitz (Argentina U19) with 7 wickets from 4 innings and Shashank Vittaladevaram (USA U19) with 6 wickets from 3 innings, to round up the top 5.
Canada U19’s total of 441/6 against Cayman Islands U19 will be placed 2nd, if counted among the highest totals made in U19 Youth ODI matches in history.
With this win, Canada U19 will back once again in the main draw of U19 World Cup, for the 7th time since their maiden appearance in the 2002 edition of the tournament and 2018 being their previous appearance.
