Babar stars on opening day of USACA T20

Captain Fahad Babar scored back-to-back half-centuries to lead his Central East Region team to a pair of wins on the opening day of the 2015 USACA T20 National Championship in Lauderhill, Florida.

Central East recorded a nine-wicket win over North East to start the day, with Babar producing an unbeaten 50 off 39 balls to steer his side's chase of 97. Against Atlantic Region, Babar hit 56 in Central East's first innings total of 145 for 8 on the turf wicket at Central Broward Regional Park. Atlantic's chase was wrecked by the part-time offspin of Abhijit Joshi, who claimed 5 for 19 in 3.5 overs as Atlantic were wiped out for 112.

South East also made it through the opening day undefeated after knocking off Central West on the stadium turf wicket by 24 runs and then defending a target of 117 on the artificial wicket against USA Development XI to win by 10 runs.

Star USA batsman Steven Taylor clobbered 91 off 63, including 10 fours and four sixes, in an imposing total of 176 for 4 before restricting Central West to 152 for 7. Taylor and Timothy Surujbally each took three wickets to stifle USA Development XI's chase, which ended on 106 for 9.

Pre-tournament favorites North West stumbled to a 13-run loss to USA Development XI before bouncing back with a 57-run win over New York in the day's primetime match inside the stadium. Roy Silva top-scored with 61 for USA Development XI in a total of 185 for 4 before taking three wickets in North West's chase which ended on 172 for 8. Srinivas Salver produced 84 at No. 6 but got little support as the next best score was extras with 15.

In the late match, wicketkeeper Ritesh Kadu struck 58 off 43 opening the innings for North West in a total of 162 for 6. Spin did most of the damage to New York's chase, accounting for nine of the 10 wickets. Legspinners Rahul Singh and Saqib Saleem took 3 for 21 and 2 for 25 respectively before offspinner Pranay Suri wiped out the tail with 4 for 8 in 3.3 overs as New York were bowled out for 105 in 19.3 overs.

In the day's other two matches, New York defeated Atlantic by nine wickets and Central West defeated North East by 58 runs. Atlantic were bowled out for 117 in 18.4 overs with opening bowler Muhammad Ilyas wiping out the top four. Akeem Dodson opened New York's chase and finished 50 not out in 46 balls with the target reached in just 12.4 overs.

Central West made the biggest total on day one by racking up 196 for 6 against a weak North East attack. Former Tamil Nadu Ranji player Dhandapani Devarasan scored 73 off 43 with six fours and five sixes at No. 3 for Central West. Fast bowler Shuja Naqvi put a major dent into North East's chase by producing a double-wicket maiden in the second over and from there they struggled to recover, finishing on 138 for 9.