ICC Intercontinental Cup and Shield

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA v CANADA The newly-laid turf pitch at Brian Piccolo Park was the setting for the first first-class match on American soil since 1913 when a combined United States-Canada side met the touring Australians at Manheim, PA. It was also Canada’s return to first-class cricket after a gap of fifty years, their last match being against Yorkshire at Scarborough, on their tour of England in 1954. Canada started confidently against the American pace attack, reaching 57 before the first wicket fell. After John Davison was forced to retire with a stomach upset and the USA changed to their spinners, Zamin Amin and Nasir Javed, conditions became more difficult and a precursor of what was to come. Only a partnership of 88 between Davison, when he returned, and Harvinder Dhillon enabled Canada to reach what proved to be an acceptable total. Davison and Sunil Dhaniram stifled the American reply as eight wickets were lost before the close, six of them to Davison’s off spin. Davison quickly finished the American innings on the second morning with a return of eight wickets for 61. Canada’s inexperience of three-day cricket showed, however, when, instead of consolidating their position, their batsmen threw their wickets away in a quest for quick runs. By lunch they had lost five wickets for 50 and by mid-afternoon were reduced to 96 for eight. Surprisingly it was the American quicker bowlers, particularly Howard Johnson and Tony Reid, who did the damage. Sunil Dhaniram then restored some sense to the innings with a patient 65 at a strike rate of 43.9, aided by Zahid Hussain (8 runs at a strike rate of 17.7) and Ashish Patel (7 runs at 14.0), an effort which enabled Canada to set the Americans a target of 231 runs which, if achieved, would be the highest innings total of the match. At 87 for two wickets at the close and with Mark Johnson and Steve Massiah batting well, the game was evenly poised and promised an interesting third day. Overall, Mark Johnson had a good day since he had earlier held four catches behind the stumps, two off the pace bowlers and two standing up to the spinners. In contrast to the expected closely-contested last day, Johnson was dismissed early and the Americans caved in to Davison, who took a further eight wickets to bring his innings return of nine for 76. Only a further 21.2 overs were needed to give Canada a convincing victory although, in reality, the Americans were defeated by Davison rather than by Canada. By making the highest individual score of the match in addition to his 17 wickets for 137, he dominated the proceedings. His match analysis equalled the sixteenth best of all time in first-class cricket and, in terms of the number of wickets, has only been exceeded by Jim Laker’s 19-90 for England against Australia at Manchester (Old Trafford) in 1956. He and Laker are the only players to have taken 17 or more wickets in a match since the Second World War. He had no competitor for the award as Man of the Match. 22 ICC Intercontinental Cup 2004