Cricket: Senior men winless after two in Americas World Cup Qualifier

The Cayman Islands national senior men’s cricket team will need to dig deep in order to qualify for the 2020 T20 World Cup after a second straight loss Monday (19 August) versus the United States at the Americas Region Finals in Hamilton, Bermuda.

After the Americans won the toss and elected to field first, Cayman was led by Man of the Match Luke Harrington-Myers. Making his T20 debut, Harrington-Myers was 17 off 18 not out including one boundary. Opener Chad Hauptfleisch was 10 off 16 as Cayman finished all out for 68 off 8.

“It was difficult conditions with rain delays,” captain Alessandro Morris said. “We didn’t put enough runs on the board. We came out saying we were going to fight, and we did our best.”

In the chase, opener Xavier Marshall was 12 off 27, while Morris bowling four overs surrendering only 10 runs and claiming one wicket. The Americans 60 off 5 and won by 10 runs using the under Duckworth–Lewis method due to limited innings caused by weather.

“We led the game right until seven minutes prior to the rain,” said Morris. “We would have won the game if the rain came seven minutes earlier. In this match, we saw Cayman’s strengths came up. We made it very difficult for them, who took a while 15 overs to get to 60 runs, and we were only defending 69. It’s a sign we are improving, and guys are putting in the effort.”

Cayman will play Bermuda (1-0) on Wednesday. On Sunday, the host nation defeated the United States by six runs, but had their match versus Canada end in no result due to weather after finishing 82 off 9.

The Cayman Islands opened the tournament Sunday losing to Canada by 84 runs.

“We’ve faced a lot of obstacles,” Morris said. “We didn’t execute as we planned. Sometimes that happens against teams that play everyday professionally. They seize opportunities, and we weren’t able to react. Greg (Strydom) batted well, Alistair Ifill hung in there and batted well. We’d played well in patches, and I saw good signs to get better in the next game.”

The top two teams from the Americas Final will advance to the final stage of qualification for the 2020 T20 World Cup in the United Arab Emirates in October.

View the results here.