India 326 for 5 (Kulkarni 108, Musheer 73, Subramanian 2-45) beat USA125 for 8 (Srivastava 40, Tiwari 4-20) by 201 runs
India piled up 326 for 5 in their 50 overs with Kulkarni and Musheer doing the bulk of the scoring. In reply, medium pacer Tiwari picked up 4 for 20 in nine overs as USA were kept to 125 for 8 in Bloemfontein.
Kulkarni and Musheer, however, dug in to add 155 runs off 142 balls for the second wicket. Both the batters took their time in settling in before opening up. Kulkarni had a lucky escape when he was dropped on 16 at mid-off and made sure to cash in. He hacked quick bowler Aarin Nadkarni for six over deep midwicket and clobbered Rishi Ramesh, the legspinner, around the same region before reaching his half-century off 70 balls.
USA were never really in the chase. They lost openers Prannav Chettipalayam and Bhavya Mehta in the first two overs. Tiwari then removed Ramesh for 8 as USA slipped to 12 for 3 after 7.5 overs. Siddarth Kappa and Srivastava stayed firm for a bit, adding 43 runs off 93 balls for the fourth wicket, before offspinner Moliya got into the act, sending back Kappa for 18.
Tiwari then added to his wicket tally as he removed Srivastava and Manav Nayak in successive overs to have USA at 79 for 6, which soon became 90 for 7 after 30 overs. Amogh Arepally (27* off 71) and Nadkarni (20 off 44) added 31 off 78 balls for the eighth wicket, which delayed the inevitable and ensured India couldn’t bowl the opposition out.
India headed into the Super Sixes topping their group and will face New Zealand on Tuesday.
