English County Club, Kent Spitfires, survived a mighty scare against a rejuvenated USA as they played out a close encounter in which Kent managed to close out their challenge by 27 runs.
USA won the toss and elected to bowl first @Sir Viv Richards Cricket Ground in Antigua and made the perfect start as Hutchinson got rid of the dangerous Daniel Bell-Drummond without scoring. USA had more to cheer about as Saurabh Netravalkar accounted for Sean Dickson (18 off 27) to leave them at 22/2 in the 10th over.
The rebuilding stared with Zack Crawley (27 off 65) and Joe Denly, who eventually struck a masterclass 96 runs off 109 deliveries, missing out on a well-deserved century. There were crucial runs down the order by Will Gidman (22 off 36) and Adam Rouse (22 off 28), as Kent huffed and puffed to 215, before getting bowled out Ion the final ball of the innings.
Roy Silva (3/43), Elmore Hutchinson (2/33) and Timil Patel (2/35) bowled well in tandem to restrict Kent from scoring more on the tricky wicket.
USA didn’t have the best of starts as they lost 3 wickets with 56 runs on board by the 14th over. A 64 runs partnership for the 4th wicket kept them in the hunt before Timil Patel (19 off 48) fell to Imran Qayyum at the score reading 120 in the 37th over. Roy Silva followed in the next over with all pressure coming down on USA skipper, Ibrahim Khaleel (61 off 114), who held up one innings in a valiant effort but once he got out in the 43rd over, the chase did not last much longer.
Elmore (15 off 8) and Adil Bhatti (15 n.o off 19) only managed to delay the inevitable as USA managed to reach only 188/9 in their 50 overs to lose their 4th consecutive group match by 27 runs.
Adam Riley (3/36), Imran Qayyum (2/42), Calum Haggett (1/30) and Joe Denly (1/37), combined well to restrict USA from taking the game deep in the final overs.
