Ravi Timbawala leads his team to a shunning victory

Defending champions Canada were on the receiving end of a surprise first day defeat at the hands of the USA at the Americas U19 Championships in Toronto, Canada.

The host nation, winner of both previous U19 Championships in 2001 and 2003 respectively, were beaten by a committed United States outfit by 39 runs.

After being put in to bat, the USA scored consistently to set themselves up with a good score, thanks largely to 2nd and 3rd wicket partnerships of 47 and 83 respectively.

Action from USA v Canada © ICC

Opening bat Ravi Timbawala, later named man of the match, put together an excellent innings of 67 in 94 balls, and his partnerships with Akeem Dodson (23 in 40 balls) and Hemant Punoo (32 in 56 balls) put the US side in a commanding position at 148 for 2 after 25 overs.

Accurate bowling from Krunal Patel (3 for 44 in 10 overs) and Trevin Bastiampillai (2 for 38 in 10 overs) brought Canada back into the frame, but a 51 run 6th wicket partnership between Ramsabad Kumar (42 in 73 balls) and Danai Nathanial (22 in 32 balls) eventually set the USA up to post a final score of 246 all out to the last ball of their 50th over.

In reply, the Canadians were pegged back by some consistent bowling and tigerish fielding, and in contrast to the USA innings, simply could not put any meaningful partnerships together, being reduced to 100 for 5 after 20 overs.

It was left to middle order batsmen Gunjan Patel (28 in 73 balls) and Waqas Junaid (37 in 60 balls) to try and mount a real challenge to the USA score, but eventually 207 all out in 46.1 overs was as far as the Canadians could go.

Excellent bowling from Usman Mohammad (2 for 49 in 10 overs) and Anil Deopersaud (3 for 44 in 10 overs) were the best of a fine all-round team effort.