. In the first-ever 2002 Americas Championship, the USA had emerged as the unbeaten Americas Champions with a 4-0 performance. But their last match, against close runner-up Caymans, had been rained out without a ball being bowled. Here was an opportunity to see what might have happened if that fifth day of the 2002 tournament had not been washed out-- whether the Cayman Islanders could, after all, have won the 2002 Americas Tournament. The two-match series between the United States and the Cayman Islands at the Opa Locka Airport playing fields in South East Florida on November 7 and 8, 2003, it was hoped, would provide an answer to that open-ended question.
For a while, it seemed that history might be repeating itself. After a Thursday of torrential rain and thunderstorms that recorded 5.5 inches of rain in 6hrs at the nearby Homestead baseball complex, the game was beginning to look doubtful. Fortunately, Opa Locka airport only recorded 0.55 inches during the same period and the game was able to go ahead.
The day got off to a bright start for the USA team by winning the toss and electing to bowl in the slightly damp conditions, a decision that reaped immediate rewards. The Cayman Islanders lost their first wicket with only two runs on the board, as opening batsman F. Hinds played all around a straight forward delivery by Khwaja Usman Shuja.
The second Cayman Islands wicket fell after a mix-up between new batsman L. Cunningham and P. Wight who was run out for 5 with the total at 20.
The Cayman Islands then looked to stamp their authority on the match with a 51 run partnership between Cunningham (54) and Steve Gordon (33) until the latter was once again a victim of a run out. The flow of runs promised to continue with P. Best (14) joining Cunningham at the wicket for a 27 run partnership until the USA's X-Factor of recent times struck again.
Nasir (Charlie) Javed , victorious captain of the National Championship winning South East regional team, strode to the bowling crease, beginning a rout of the unsuspecting Cayman Islanders. Their batsmen played him without respect, looking to put him on to the main airport runway at every opportunity. Unfortunately for them, they had misjudged this wily old cricket connoisseur of the United States who proceeded to put an end to the Islanders' hopes of a big total taking 4-46 off 8 overs including 3 very good stumpings by Wasim Khan.
Not to be forgotten, the ever-reliable Richard Staple, captain of the USA team, was not giving away anything at the other end with a 6-over spell costing over 11 runs whilst yielding 2 valuable wickets. The Cayman Island finished at 9 for 144 following their allotted 40 overs. A little less than would have been expected early on, but a competitive score none the less.
The USA began their innings in a cautious manner with Amer Afzaluddin(10) and Wasim Khan(10) looking comfortable until the loss of Khan with the score on 11.
Enter Steve Massiah. The composure of Massiah must have put shivers into the Islands bowlers as the sun began to head further west beyond the DC-11's and the hangars. As with the Cayman Islands innings, just as the United States looked to be cruising to the small total, Afzaluddin was lost with the score at 59 , Caught Best , bowled D Wight (2-26)-- and then Richard Staple went first ball,bowled by Wight.
To the rescue came Amjad Khan, with his blazing bat striking two quick sixes in his flamboyant 23 . Following Khan's departure with Massiah still playing well at the other end, Clayton Lambert strode to the crease in his Sir Viv Richards style, and proceeded to tear apart the Cayman attack in unison with Massiah. They took the total to 137 before Lambert was comprehensively bowled by a R. Bovell in-swinging delivery.
With only 8 runs remaining for the victory and plenty of overs in hand, the 200 odd crowd led by West Indian legend Lance Gibbs began to celebrate a United States victory as new batsman Amir Nanji strode to the crease to join the comfortable Massiah. The pair proceeded to reel off the remaining runs for a comfortable 5-wicket victory for the United States.
Commenting after the game, USA vice-captain Nasir Javed stated that although he was pleased with the win, he was " disappointed with the effort of his team" but expected an improved performance in the second game on Saturday.
The Cayman Islands team were also disappointed with the result saying that they felt that they underestimated the United States bowling attack and will be looking to learn from the experience and vow to make amends in the second match.
