The battle of American rivals began with yet another top-order failure for Canada. Pargat Singh (0), Matthew Spoors (4) and Srimantha Wijeyeratne (1) all fell in no time as Ali Khan (2/41) and Saurabh Netravalkar (2/24) showed top form.
The reconstruction job fell on Aaron Johnson and Nicholas Kirton, who showed restraint before opening their arms after the ninth over. Johnson hit six fours and a six in an entertaining knock before he fell to the slow left-arm orthodox spin of Nisarg Patel for 47. When Kirton and Nikhil Dutta joined him in the dressing room 43 balls later, Canada were in deep trouble at 98/6.
Skipper Saad Bin Zafar stuck around with Harsh Thaker (43) in a 48-run stand but USA kept chipping away with wickets at regular intervals to ensure that Canada didn’t cross 200.
