Chronicle Editor
Bongani Ndlovu, Online Reporter
An unbeaten 101 by United States of America top order batsman Steven Taylor set up his country for an eight-wicket victory over Jersey in the first match of the ICC T20 Qualifier B at Bulawayo Athletic Club yesterday.
Electing to field first after winning the toss, USA restricted Jersey to 154/5 and the Stars and Stripes posted 159/2 in reply.
Taylor’s unbeaten 101 consisted of five sixes and 12 fours. It was also his first T20 century, as he had been out of the American side for the past few months due to a dip in form.
Taylor was involved in an 88-run partnership with Aaron Jones (38) to take USA over the line.
Eighteen-year-old Jersey batsman Asa Tribe top scored for his country with an unbeaten 74 comprising seven sixes and one four off 45 balls.
Jersey’s innings was slow out of the blocks and they lost their first wicket in the sixth over after Harrison Carlton was caught by Gajanand Singh off the bowling of Juan Theron for 10 runs.
Nicholas Greenwood was run out by Juan Theron in the eighth over for 16 runs with the score on 40.
Thereafter, teenage batsman Tribe walked onto the crease, but Jonty Jenner was trapped lbw after scoring just three runs.
Benjamin Stevens only scored six runs before being caught by Monank Patel off the bowling of Nisarg Patel.
Tribe and Benjamin Ward built a fourth-wicket partnership of 75 runs that steadied Jersey’s innings, with Benjamin hitting 38 before being trapped leg before wicket by the bowling of Theron with the second last ball of the innings.
Nisarg Patel was the pick of the American bowlers, finishing with 2/26 in his allotted four overs, while Theron ended on 2/28.
Taylor then bludgeoned the Jersey bowling attack all over the park supported by Jones to win the match with 11 balls to spare.
In the second match, a low scoring match between Uganda and Hong Kong saw the East Africans scrambling to a two-wicket win with three balls to spare.
Hong Kong won the toss and chose to bat, and struggled to 87/9 in their 20 overs.
It looked like Uganda was going to win the match comfortably, but Hong Kong displayed some strong bowling and fielding to take the game to the wire, but Uganda eventually prevailed, scoring 88/8 in 19.3 overs.
Dineshkumar Nakrani of Uganda put up a man-of-the-match bowling performance with his right-arm seam to end with impressive figures of 4/12 in his four overs.
Uganda captain Kenneth Waiswa admitted that they could have done better with the bat.
“The bowlers did a good job, as they were hitting a good line and length, and we only conceded three boundaries in the 20 overs.
Coming to the batting we didn’t start well, but we knew that if we batted the 20 overs, we could chase down the score,” said Waiswa. — Follow on Twitter @bonganinkunzi
Online Reporter