USA women's cricket team creates history by sealing twin berths in global qualifiers
A superb team performance led by skipper Sindhu Sriharsha and a four-wicket haul from Uzma Iftikhar guided USA Women to seal qualification as the Road to Australia 2020 and New Zealand 2021 for them continues
In Short
- USA are now in both the ICC Women's T20 World Cup Qualifier and the ICC Women's World Cup Qualifier 2020
- Uzma Iftikhar and Sindhu Sriharsha were the heroes of USA's victory
- The two sides will clash again in the 3rd and final match of the series
A superb team performance led by skipper Sindhu Sriharsha and a four-wicket haul from Uzma Iftikhar guided USA Women to seal qualification as the Road to Australia 2020 and New Zealand 2021 for them continues. With the ICC Women's Qualifier Americas acting as a dual qualifier between USA and Canada, USA have booked their spot in both the ICC Women's T20 World Cup Qualifier - taking place in Scotland between August 31 and September 7 this year, where USA will join Bangladesh, Ireland, Scotland, PNG, Thailand and Zimbabwe and the ICC Women's World Cup Qualifier 2020.
Canada showed early promise in the 114 run-chase as the game was right in the balance at 49 for the loss of four at the half-way stage. But a spell from Uzma and miserly brilliance from Claudine Beckford who bowled three overs for just one run helped the USA close out the game and spark wild celebrations.
Earlier, Canada made an early breakthrough with the dismissal of Rendler after sending the USA into bat. But a wonderful second wicket partnership of 68 between the skipper Sriharsha and Chandhraseker brought USA's total to 83 for the loss of two in the 15th over and ahead of the game. Canada then fought back to restrict the USA to 113 for the loss of six.
USA Cricket took Twitter to share their joy.
JUMPING FOR JOY!!!#TeamUSA Women celebrate qualifying today for both the @cricketworldcup & the @T20WorldCup Global Qualifiers as we take an unassailable 2-0 series lead over Canada!
FULL SCORECARD: https://t.co/PMQm0FCKa1 pic.twitter.com/E98Az2dckq USA Cricket (@usacricket) May 18, 2019
The two sides will clash again in the third and final match of the series as the USA, with an unassailable lead, look to close out a 3-0 series victory.
Following are the squads:
USA: Sindhu Sriharsha (c & wk), Candacy Atkins, Claudine Beckford, Shebani Bhaskar, Sara Farooq, Nadia Gruny, Uzma Iftikhar, Sugetha Kalyanaraman, Mahika Kandanala, Geetika Kodali, Samantha Ramautar, Lisa Ramjit, Erica Rendler, Onika Wallerson
Canada: Mahwish Khan (c), Hala Azmat, Habeeba Bader, Maliha Baig (wk), Mahrukh Imtiaz, Miryam Khokhar, Chuntell Martin, Kamna Mirchandani, Monali Patel, Achini Perera, Kainat Qazi, Hiba Shamshad, Amanjit Virk, Saniyah Zia.