New boys in town, Belize and Panama, were no match for regional heavyweights USA and Canada, as both registered comprehensive 10-wicket victories over them on the opening day’s action in ICC Americas group “A” qualifiers for World T20 at Raleigh Cricket Club ground in Morrisville, North Carolina.
Both Panama and Belize made surprising calls after winning the toss and electing to bat first, after few showers earlier at the venue the previous night and the outfield a bit soggy but couldn’t make the most of the decision, as both USA and Canada bowlers ran through their batting line-up without any major hiccups on the way.
Small totals of 60+ and 40+ were never going to be enough to defend and both USA and Canada openers smashed their way through to victory in very less time and also boosting their net run-rate by big margins, should it be required at the end of the double round-robin format tournament to claim the two available qualification spots in the Americas regional finals in 2019.
Brief Scores:
Panama 65/8 in 20 overs (Imran Bulbulia 25, Ibrahim Vhora 11, Timil Patel 2/4, Roy Silva 2/5, Ali Khan 2/7, Elmore Hutchinson 1/9) lost to USA 67/0 in 5.2 overs (Monank Patel 45 n.o, Jaskaran Malhotra 15 retired hurt) by 10 wickets
Belize 42 all out in 14.3 overs (Dirk Sutherland 10 n.o, Nitish Kumar 3/1, Romesh Don 3/5, Dilon Heyliger 2/12, Saad bin Zafar 1/7) lost to Canada 43/0 in 3 overs (Navneet Dhaliwal 20 n.o, Srimantha Wijeratne 20 n.o) by 10 wickets
