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Canada 198 (Johnson 47, Netravalkar 2-24) beat United States of America 172 (Modani 64, Kaleem Sana 3-14, Zafar 3-43) by 26 runs
Windhoek: 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.
In response, USA batters found the going tough. They lost opener Saiteja Mukkamalla for just one run, while Thaker accounted for skipper Monank Patel with his off-spin in the eighth over.
Aaron Jones, who had mustered an impressive 36 in the last game, arrived at number four and along with Sushant Modani, ensured that the run-scoring kept pace with the asking rate.
However, Thaker (2/30) struck yet again in the 16th over to dismiss Jones.
Canada were on top after Pargat got rid of Gajanand Singh, USA's hero from the last game, in the 26th over.
Regular strikes ensured that the wickets column kept bleeding, while disciplined bowling kept the scoring rate in check.
Only the reticent Modani (64) stood his ground as the game slowly slipped away from USA.
His dismissal in the 45th over extinguished the last embers of American hope. Saad (3/43) and Kaleem Sana (3/14) shined with the ball for Canada.
