One associate team was guaranteed a spot in the semi-finals of the knock-out tournament of the CLICO International Under-15, and after beating Kenya in the quarter finals, that honour went to the combined Americas side.

And after a bright start, they looked as if they might just upset the hosts and claim an unlikely place in the final.

The opening partnership consisted of players from the USA and Canada, the old rivals combining to give this Americas side a good start. Abhijit Joshi of Chicago (51) and Nitesh Kumar of Toronto (39) combined for a 108 run opening stand, forcing the West Indian captain to use several bowlers.

John Campbell was the seventh bowler used when he finally removed Joshi for 51, and he went on to decimate the rest of the Americas batting line-up, taking 6/43 from his ten overs. K Hodge was the other wicket taker, taking two wickets for a very economical ten runs from his full quota.

The only other significant contribution came from the 46 runs given away in extras by the West Indies, as the Americas were bowled out for 166.

John Campbell was unable to repeat his bowling heroics with the bat, and was out for six with just 20 runs on the board. Kraigg Brathwaite and Ramon Senior then set about building the home side's innings with a 124 run partnership before Winnipeg born Trevor Manoosingh bowled Senior for 68.

Braithwaite stayed in and, along with A Saunders, took the West Indies home in the 27th over without any further notch in the wickets column.

The West Indies will now play Pakistan, who beat Bangladesh yesterday, in the knock-out final tomorrow. All eight participating teams will eventually be in either Trinidad or Guyana for the round robin tournament, which starts on Saturday.