MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Mexico defeats Falklands in Americas Division 3 T20 cricket championship

The Falklands delegation

Mexico began their quest for Americas Division 3 T20 Cricket Championship with an impressive 10-wicket victory over the winless Falkland Islands in the morning session of Day 2.

The Mexicans won the toss and elected to field, it proved to be a wise decision as the slow pace of the pitch combined with the accurate bowling of Michael Linnecar (3/8) and Yasir Patel (2/12) restricted the Islanders to the total of 58 all out in 19.2 overs.

Martin Collins 15 and Charles Hewitt 13 were the only two batsmen to reach double figures. In reply the Mexican opening pair of Richard Wagner (26) and Tushar Gupta (28) raced to their target in 9.4 overs to post a 10 wicket victory.

In the afternoon session host Costa Rica was pitted against the Falkland Islands, while Mexico took on Chile who were recovering from an upset by Peru on day one.

Costa Rica won the toss and elected to bat. Tim Baker and Shane Catford got the host off to an exceptional start, aided by four dropped catches the pair put on the first century partnership of the tournament with Baker scoring 29 and Catford 87 not out. The innings closed at 140/2, an impressive target for the Falkland Islands to chase.

In reply the Falkland Islands never got on top of the run rate required and there was no doubt the host were on track for their first victory of the tournament, a convincing 65 run victory as the Falklands were all out for 75 in 19.2 overs. For Costa Rica, Ben Smith took a hat trick ending with figures of 3/12. He was supported by Chris Prasad who took 3/16.

Mexico won the toss against Chile and elected to bat. The South Americans got on top early taking the wicket of the opener Wagner without a run on the board.

The Mexican batsmen, Gupta and Patel dug in gamely but an unfortunate run out to their Captain Yasir Patel (just when he was looking set for a big innings); put them back on their heels. His was the first of four run outs which hindered the Mexican chances of a large target. Their struggle ended with a respectable of 106/7 in their 20 overs. Yasir Patel (26) and Tushar Gupta (21) were the top batsmen for Mexico.

Chile struggled in the early going but four overs of some untidy bowling by Mexico allowed Simon Shalders’ (21) and Russell Perryman (23*) to steer their side home by four wickets. Tushar Gupta 3/29 and Deepak Sharma 2/17 were the leading bowlers for Mexico.