A brilliant century by Rizwan Cheema led Canada to a comprehensive 9 wicket win over the USA in the Americas Championship. A good bowling performance from Canada led to a modest target, and Cheema’s unbeaten 114 gave Canada victory with 11 overs to spare.
Canada made an excellent start to this encounter between the two oldest rivals in international cricket, restricting the US to just 189 from 49.1 overs. Calvert Hooper led the attack with three wickets, and with opening partner Khurram Chohan had the US reeling at 65/4. Marshall (48) and Thyagarajan (33) staged a recovery, and assisted by Allen (37) took the total to 189. Bhatti had impressive figures of 2/17 from 9.1 overs, and Hooper took 3/41. Patel also took two wickets in a good all-round bowling performance.
A characteristic innings from Rizwan Cheema led the reply; he started fast but slowed somewhat after passing 50. He and Bastiampillai put on 98 in 22 overs before the first wicket fell. Patel provided good support as Cheema completed his century, and finished unbeaten on 114 (96 balls) with ten fours and five sixes. Canada went to 2 and 0, and play Argentina on Monday.
CricInfo scorecard