The ICC Americas Division 3 Championships, held at Los Reyes Polo Club, Costa Rica, was Peru’s most successful international tournament, with a record of four wins out of five, and a highly creditable 2^nd place finish. The only loss was to the eventual undefeated champions, Belize, on the first morning.

Success was based on a disciplined bowling unit of Miles Buesst, Nadeem Ahmed, Javed Iqbal, Tony Sanford and Dinesh Ekanayake, taking advantage of the low bounce of the wickets, and a large, slow outfield, backed up by good fielding, to starve batsmen of runs and force them into errors. Runs were at a premium on the two pitches used, and so batsmen had to be patient and correct to weather the initial storm of the opposition’s top bowlers, before making hay against the lesser bowlers. This approach was typified by Mike Soulsby’s masterly half century, off 63 balls, against Chile, that won him the Man of the Match award.

Seemingly low T20 scores of under a hundred against Chile and Costa Rica were easily defended, and even the free-scoring Belizean batsmen took 14 overs to score 65, losing 6 wickets along the way, and indicating that the ball would dominate the bat for most of the Championship.

This was certainly the case against Mexico, who batting first, were rolled over for 49; and then the Falkland Islands were dismissed for 22, the lowest score of the tournament, as some of Peru’s second string bowlers came to the fore.

Sadly, none of the Peru players featured in the personal awards, which were as follows:

Most Valuable Player:          Conway Young          Belize

Most Runs:                              John Fecci                   Chile

Most Wickets:                        Keve Flowers             Belize

Best Wicket Keeper:            Conway Young           Belize

However, the below statistics and scorecards show how many of the Peru players made significant contributions in what was a wonderful team effort.

Day 1: Mon, 14th March: Report

Peru (64 for 9) lost to Belize (65 for 6) by 4 wickets: Scorecard

Costa Rica (123 for 7) lost to Chile (124 for 5) by 5 wickets: Scorecard

Belize (182 for 5) defeated Falkland Islands (50 all out) by 132 runs: Scorecard

Peru (88 for 8 ) defeated Chile (48 all out) by 40 runs: Scorecard

Day 2: Tues, 15^th March: Report

Falkland Islands (58 all out) lost to Mexico (59 for 0) by 10 wickets: Scorecard

Mexico (106 for 7) lost to Chile (107 for 6) by 4 wickets: Scorecard

Costa Rica (140 for 2) defeated Falkland Islands (75 all out) by 65 runs: Scorecard

Day 3: Weds, 16^th March: Report

Peru (98 for 6) defeated Costa Rica (67 all out) by 31 runs: Scorecard

Falkland Islands (71 for 8 ) lost to Chile (72 for 1) by 9 wickets: Scorecard

Belize (106 for 8 ) defeated Mexico (87 for 9) by 19 runs: Scorecard

Day 4: Thurs, 17^th March: Report

Mexico (49 all out) lost to Peru (50 for 1) by 9 wickets: Scorecard

Costa Rica (39 all out) lost to Belize (40 for 3) by 7 wickets: Scorecard

Peru (126 for 3) defeated Falkland Islands (22 all out) by 104 runs: Scorecard

Day 5: Fri, 18^th March: Report

Chile (85 for 7) lost to Belize (90 for 5) by 5 wickets: Scorecard

Mexico (130 for 5) defeated Costa Rica (35 all out) by 95 runs: Scorecard

ICC Americas WCL Div 3 Points table