Going into the final day of the Americas Championship, hosts the USA already had the trophy pretty much in the bag, but needed a win over the Cayman Islands to be absolutely sure. In the end, they didn't even need that, as the Bermuda v Canada match was washed out, leaving the result of the USA's final match irrelevant.

Rain was in the air in Fort Lauderdale, and the USA v Cayman Islands match was reduced to 49 overs each before play even started. The Caymans won the toss and inserted the USA. This soon proved to be the wrong decision as the USA's opening pair of Sushil Nadkarni and Carl Wright put on 194 for the first wicket.

Nadkarni was eventually out for 84, another fine innings from him, and he was deservedly named player of the tournament. Wright went on to score a fine 112, coming off 105 balls, as the USA scored 289/6 from their allotted overs.

Rain brought an early end to the Cayman Islands' run chase, with them on 65/4 in their 24th over. The USA won by 87 runs through the Duckworth/Lewis method.

The USA were presented with the trophy by the Mayor and Commissioner of Fort Lauderdale. Skipper Steve Massiah called his team the best USA team to ever take the field. Whilst there is an air of exaggeration in the statement - the team of 100 years ago included the likes of Bart King after all - this could well be the start of a new era for American cricket.

The team is relatively young, with the majority of players being under 30 for the first time in many years. Young American born players are also starting to come through the ranks, and as long as the USACA can keep itself in good order - no easy task - cricket has an intriguing future in the USA.

As already mentioned, the Bermuda v Canada match was rained off. Canada scored 190/6 from their 42 overs, and Bermuda replied with 53/1 from 9.2 overs, well on top thanks to a 23 ball innings of 40 from Lionel Cann, before rain ended the match.

In the other match of the day, Suriname showed improvement, but still finished last after losing by six wickets to Argentina. Suriname made their highest score of the tournament - 190 - thanks to 53 from Charles Douglas, but Argentina, with player/coach Hamish Barton back in their line-up chased down the target in the 46th over, Barton scoring 68.

If the USA's performance is the most pleasing of the tournament, Argentina's is the most worrying. They seem to have gone backwards since the WCL Division Three tournament in 2007 where they were runners-up to Uganda, and will need to improve a lot - and stop relying so much on Hamish Barton if they are to repeat that performance when they host Division Three in January and reach the World Cup Qualifier.

Suriname will be relegated back to Division Two for 2010, and will be left wondering how they would have done had their players not had problems with their visas, forcing them to field a weakened team.