Amrinder Gill hit a century against Zimbabwe. Sahil Garg knocked a stout 75(83) against Pakistan.
The rest? Ehh…
It’s not necessarily a secret that the United States has a top-heavy order or that its pacers can be streaky, but those issues were put to the test in a big way against Pakistan in the final warm-up match before the Men’s U19 Cricket World Cup, which began this morning in Zimbabwe. While the pacers were respectable - Sabrish Prasad, Ritvik Appidi, and Rayaan Taj all kept the run rate down - the 3-7 spots order crumpled for 61 runs off 90 deliveries, 36 of which came from Utkarsh Srivastava, in a 69 run loss to the newly crowned U19 Asia Cup champions.
The rain that was on radars and forecasts all over Bulawayo today merely strafed Queens Sports Club instead of hitting it head-on on the tournament’s opening day, and that allowed India to score a six-wicket DLS win over the United States, but the American bowlers acquitted themselves well and made India earn it. A terrific outing from Ritvik saw him bowl out vaunted prospect Vaibhav Sooryavanshi with some old fashioned heat on a length that skimmed off an inside edge and sent leg stump flying. He got Vedant Trivedi right after the rain delay, and Amrinder kept his eyes on the ball and recovered from a stumble to make a terrific catch in the deep for Rishabh Shimpi to claim his first international wicket, sending India captain Ayush Mhatre back to the pavilion. The bats just didn’t give them enough real estate to defend after getting bowled out for 107.
While they are clear underdogs in Group B, this squad does have players of demonstrated ability. Amrinder and Sahil are an excellent opening pair with at least one of them good for a big score on a given day… although they were made short work of by Henil Patel, who got Amrinder’s wicket with the ball and caught Sahil in the field. Sahir Bhatia is one of the best leg spinners in the United States regardless of age and ran through Minor League Cricket’s East Division like a buzzsaw. Utkarsh is one of the few players in the entire tournament who has already played for his senior national team, but that experience didn’t materialize against India. He went for a five-ball duck today.
Expectations are not high in a daunting group with two former champions, so every achievement should be celebrated like Ritvik’s impassioned response to getting Sooryavanshi. The goal should be to do something the United States has never done before: win one match in group play.
The U19 team has won twice at the World Cup: the 12th place game against Namibia in 2006 on a squad that featured Nisarg Patel and Akeem Dodson, and the 15th place game against Afghanistan in 2010 with a squad including a 16-year-old Steven Taylor. Afghanistan was an Associate Member at the time; the US has never beaten a Full Member in the tournament and has been drawn in with three of the better ones. India is one of the favorites to win any cricket tournament these days, and Sooryavanshi offers must-see TV even on short stays at the crease. Bangladesh has won this tournament before and has two high-level prospects in all-format standout Azizul Hakim and white ball opener Zawad Abrar, both of whom have extensive List A experience in their domestic system. New Zealand made the Super 6s last time around, which captain Tom Jones (not that one) will remember vividly after his platinum duck against India. Jones scored 40 off 36 against Zimbabwe and 50 off 48 against England in the warm-ups, so it’s not unusual for him to produce runs.
While this will be an uphill battle, this team has a fair concentration of talent - possibly the most the United States has sent to the U19 World Cup. Most of these players were born here or have lived here long enough that they represent America as it exists “on the ground,” and they are unified and motivated to represent the nation well. Even one win could be enough to advance out of the group stage for the first time. That would be a massive milestone that underscores the progress the USA is making in the sport, particularly considering the youth system is not feature-complete yet. While they didn’t get that win this morning, they showed they may be closer to it than ever, and those young men aren’t just happy to be there.
Women Get Morale Boost Before WCQ
You’d be hard pressed to find anyone who expected the US women to beat Scotland in any on-field capacity before yesterday, but they did just that in their first official warm-up match for the T20 World Cup Qualifier, winning by four wickets over the #11 team in the ICC Women’s T20I rankings at Upper Mulpani. Chetna Pagydyala set the stage with 41(38), Aditiba Chudasama provided a handy 25(14), and Tara Norris and Pooja Ganesh got the USA over the line with seven balls to spare to validate Chudasama’s call to bowl first. Notably, the frontline pacers put on a good showing with Norris and Isani Vaghela going for a combined 2/46 off their eight overs.
It’s important not to go too far overboard here. It was a warm-up match, and Darcey Carter retired out with a brisk 57 from 42; Olivia Bell, the #16 T20 bowler in the world, only bowled one over, and Kathryn Bryce only bowled two. Those are not things that would happen in an official T20I, and they might have significant impact on the outcome. But once Carter stepped away from the crease, Scotland produced shockingly little with the bat, and the American bats put it to Scotland’s other bowlers.
Women’s cricket in the United States has never been what one would call a powerhouse… or even a priority. It was an afterthought for USACA, and USA Cricket didn’t seem to be in much of a hurry to invest in it. That has resulted in an extremely young team; Norris is the oldest player by some distance at 27, and there are few pros. The flipside of a largely amateur and semi-pro team is that they have been together for a long time and have a lot of experience at a young age - and a lot of losses and hard lessons. Seeing their collective toil pay off in even a relatively small way like this can galvanize the entire camp.
I’m choosing to keep my expectations modest; beating even an 80-85% Scotland gives me hope they can beat Namibia and Papua New Guinea and get to the Super 6, which would be a successful run. At that point, they would likely see Scotland again - and the Scots won’t hold back the second time around.
The women have a final warm-up match tomorrow at 2:15am against Nepal at Kirtipur before the tournament starts for real on Sunday with Bangladesh at Upper Mulpani.
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