It was a historic moment for USA cricket when their men’s cricket team stunned Ireland by 26 runs in Lauderhill. After being reduced to 16/4, a superb partnership led USA to post a total of 188/6 in their first match of the T20I series against Ireland.
Electing to bat first after winning the toss, USA’s innings got off to a stuttering start when captain Monank Patel (2) was caught behind off the second ball of the innings. Scotland’s Barry McCarthy picked up four wickets (4/30). USA fought back with Sushant Modani (50) and Player of the Match Gajanand Singh (65) building a 110-run partnership that took the hosts to 126/5. Singh’s inning was laced with five sixes and three fours. Despite an unbeaten 57 from Lorcan Tucker, USA managed to keep Ireland’s batters under control restricting them to 162/6.
Interestingly, the USA cricket team has many Indian-origin players in their team. Some players started their cricket career in India but moved to the United States to play cricket after not getting success in India. Out of the 18 selected players for the T20 and ODI series against Ireland, 10 are of Indian origin including the new ODI Captain Monank Patel. Twenty-eight-year-old Monank, first captained the squad at the ICC America T20 World Qualifiers held in November this year and has replaced Saurabh Netravalkar as the team’s ODI captain. Monank was born in Anand, Gujarat. At the same time, Sushant Modani, who played an impressive inning, was born in Jalna, Maharashtra. 33-year-old all-rounder Nisarg Patel was born in Ahmedabad, Gujarat. Ireland men’s cricket team is the first Full ICC Member nation to tour the United States to play against the USA men’s senior national team. The tour will be across the Christmas period and is the first-ever multi-format white-ball series between the two sides.
