Canada Under-19s gained a boost thanks to a 47 run win against the Leeward Islands on Tuesday (July 28, 2015) in the West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) Under-19 Regional 50-over championship. The game, at the Jamalco ground in Jamaica, was reduced to 42 overs per side as a result some rain and a wet outfield that caused the start to be delayed.
Canada, put in to bat, made a reasonable start, the openers putting on 35 then benefited from a useful innings of 79 by captain Abraash Khan. He had support from Kurt Ramdath in an eighth wicket stand of 46 that carried Canada beyond the 200 mark to a closing 216 all out from 42 overs.

Leeward Islands lost an early wicket then moved to 66 before Slok Patel picked up his first wicket when Keacy Carty was caught for 29. Opener Ross Powell was caught behind for 40 off Patel’s bowling (86/3) and things brightened for Canada when Kurt Ramdath bowled Jael Clark for 11 to leave Leewards on 100/5. Kofi Jones and Cameron Pennyfeather led a recovery that was broken when Jones was caught for 41. Leewards 156/6 soon became 160/8 and the end seemed near when Pennyfeather was caught and bowled by Thaker for 23 (166/9). Sabjot Singh stumped Troy Toney off Thaker’s bowling to complete Canada’s win as the Leewards innings ended 169 all out after 38.2 overs.

So Canada won by 47 runs and the players should be able to enter the last two games of the round-robin phase with some increased confidence. Slok Patel took 3/32 from 9 overs, Kurt Ramdath picked up 2/33 from 6 overs and Harsh Thaker took 2/21 from 7.2 overs. Five players held catches, wicketkeeper Sarbjot Singh took a catch and made a stumping to end the Leewards innings and Andre Maddela was credited with a run out. Abraash Khan bowled just 3 overs in mid-innings but helped remove the Leewards top-scorer in taking 1/11.

Canada’s win was based on defending a total of 216 in a 42-overs per side game. Some changes had been made in the batting order and some of the batsmen made reasonable starts, such as Sarbjot Singh (21) and Shan Anantharajan (27), Kurt Ramdath infused some late runs with 28 from 23 balls and provided support to Abraash Khan’s 79 from 92 balls. Other batsmen have made runs in previous games, so hopefully the individual runs and team totals will begin to increase as Canada builds towards the 2016 ICC Under-19 Cricket World Cup.