Canada 224-9; USA 137-9

The Maple Leaf prevailed over the Stars and Stripes in the cricketing battle of North America at Lord's yesterday.

Showing why they are the team to beat in the Americas Championship, the Canadians bounced back to post 224 for nine in 50 overs before restricting the USA to 137 for nine off 41 overs.

A downpour at 6.30 p.m., however, thwarted John Davison's men in their quest to dismiss their neighbouring rivals.

The Americans were on the brink of succumbing at 113 for nine from 36.3 overs at the break and, on resumption at 7.20 p.m., faced the ludicrous task of scoring another 101 runs from 4.3 overs as Duckworth-Lewis calculations revised their target to 214 in 41 overs.

Last pair Nasir Javed and Howard Johnson saved some face for their team, surviving the opposition attack to be unbeaten on 26 and 10 respectively.

Still the Canadians' clinical demolition to mark their third successive victory this week left no doubt that, when it comes to cricket, they are the superpower up north!

In a sterling display of resilience, they fought back from 47 for four - after opting to bat - to reach a respectable total and give themselves a chance of winning. Diminutive wicketkeeper/batsman Ashish Bagai shouldered the team's hopes after the quick losses of batting heavyweights Davison, Desmond Chumney and Ian Billcliff.

A 59-run partnership between Bagai and Haninder Dhillon (33) for the fifth wicket began to rewrite what was looking like a horror-story of a script for Canada. After the latter's departure, Bagai found ready allies in the lower order. Sunil Dhaniram (17), Don Maxwell (27 off 13 balls) and Austin Codrington (25) all chipped in while Bagai remained 68 not out (six fours) at the end.

Nasir Islam took three for 39 off ten overs while opening medium pacer Charles Reid miserly completed his ten overs for 18 runs and captured two wickets. Howard Johnson and Nasir Javed also bagged two wickets each.

The Americans looked set to make a serious war of this crucial, third-round encounter and were cruising at 50 without loss after 11 overs.

In the 13th over, though, their innings fell apart as Ashish Patel - whom Davison maintained faith in despite several wayward deliveries - snapped up three wickets. Openers Mark Johnson and Rahul Kukreti fell to miscued pulls off the first two balls and Steve Massiah lost his off stump from the fifth delivery.

Patel (three for 53 from nine overs) had redeemed himself and from there the spin of Davison (two for 15 from eight overs) and Guyanese transplant Dhaniram (two for 20 from ten overs) mesmerised the Americans into submission as they plummeted further to 99 for nine. Mark Johnson top-scored for the USA with 33, including five fours.