USA secured their fifth victory of the tournament and with it a confirmed spot in the Global Qualifiers after restricting Argentina to 90. With further advancement confirmed, USA decided to rest Ali Khan, Saurabh Netravalkar and Karima Gore to have Gajanand Singh, Elmore Hutchinson and Trinson Carmichael get some game time.
How did the USA chase pan out?
The USA batsmen made light work of their facile target of 91, cantering home in the 14th over. Gajanand Singh top-scored for USA with his maiden T20I half-century, staying unbeaten during the course of the innings. Singh played some delightful strokes including four crisply struck sixes that sailed comfortably over the boundary. USA though lost Jaskaran Malhotra in the second over of the innings as Malhotra was cleaned up by an in dipper from Hernan Fennel after attempting a wild heave over mid-wicket. Xavier Marshall gave some impetus to the chase, striking three boundaries in the power play but departed in the 7th over, miscuing an attempted six to long-on off Jonathan Hurley. Aaron Jones and Singh added 53 in 7 overs to take USA over the line in the end.
How did USA fare with the ball?
USA were disciplined with the ball for most of the innings. None of the Argentina batsmen apart from Martin Siri seemed to possess the skill required to pose any real threat to USA. They looked ill-equipped to match up to their superior opponents in terms of technique or temperament. Having said that there was no dearth of determination and gut from the Argentinians as USA failed to bowl them out. USA bowlers let the game meander along after reducing Argentina to 17 for 4 as timely contributions from Siri (31 off 41) and Pedro Brun (20 off 32) made sure Argentina played out their set of 20 overs.
Brief Scores: Argentina 90/7 in 20 overs (Martin Siri 31; Rusty Theron 2- 5) lost to USA 94/2 in 13.3 overs (Gajanand Singh 50; Hernan Fennel 1-21) by eight wickets.
