Canada (2pts) 183-6, beat Bermuda (0pts) 181, by four wickets.

To suggest that this ICC Americas Championship has been a failure for Bermuda because it ended in two defeats would be wrong.

That assumes that the world is black and white, there are no grey areas, and that instant results are the be all and end all of life.

In the strictest sense it was a failure. Bermuda lost their last two games, finished third in the championship, and when winning is everything, second, or in this case third, is nothing.

For the second game in succession the team's batting folded horribly, leaving them at least 50 runs short of a defendable total. From 115 for two, Bermuda collapsed to 181 all out, and while they were once again hit by some poor umpiring decisions, they also contributed to their own downfall.

David Hemp, Rodney Trott and Kevin Tucker were all run out as their side undid all Chris Foggo's good work at the top of the order.

And Irving Romaine, while probably thinking he was unlucky to pick out Sunil Dhaniram, the only fielder on the cover boundary, would have served his team better by keeping his head when the situation was still salvageable at 158-4 with ten overs remaining.

For their part Canada's bowling was no more than adequate, and it was treated as such by Foggo, who made 53 on his return to the side, and by Hemp, who was on 48 when he was run out.

Umar Bhatti finished with four wickets, and for that he must thank Bermuda.

However, chasing 182 to win the tournament, Canada probably assumed that the game was theirs.

They were wrong. They were made to fight for every inch, and that is one of the reasons this week can have been deemed a partial success.

Bermuda are a team far removed from the one that played last year, and much improved on the one that lost so heavily in Namibia in April.

No longer the pushovers of old, the nice team everyone wanted to play against, they are an international team, with an Australian coach, and they are going to play just one way, hard.

Canada certainly found that out yesterday, and Joshua Gilbert, Rodney Trott and Janeiro Tucker will probably find themselves hauled before an ICC disciplinary committee because of it.

Despite the loss of skipper Rizwan Cheema early on, Canada were comfortable at 64 for one and cruising towards their first target of 118, the total Bermuda would have had to bowl them out for to win the tournament.

Then Kevin Tucker picked up the wicket of Hiral Patel, and Rodney Trott picked up the wicket of Sandeep Jyoti and Canada were 87 for three. It might have been even worse for the visitors, with Foggo dropping Zubin Surkari (32), Jyoti's replacement, the same over.

With Foggo dropping a couple of chances, and the umpires turning down a couple of others, including a very good shout for lbw against Trevin Bastiampillai (66), Bermuda's sense of injustice saw their emotions boil over.

Canada had clawed their way to 147 for five when things came to a head.

Convinced he had got Usman Limbada out bat-pad, Gilbert was disgusted to see the umpire remain unmoved by his celebrations.

Words were exchanged, and they soon became angry gestures suggesting Limbada leave the field, when the batsman was finally out two balls later.

After that the temperature on the field increased considerably. Rustam Bhatti was hit by a ball being thrown back to the wicketkeeper, words were exchanged, umpires became involved, and Canada were rattled.

If Bermuda had had another 50 runs to play with who knows what might have happened.

That they didn't has been the biggest issue of the tournament, and something that will need to be fixed if the vast improvements in other areas are going to translate into success.

In the end Canada's most experienced player Sunil Dhaniram stayed cool long enough to see his side home, with 44 balls remaining.

With five wins from five, Canada were worthy winners, but Bermuda aren't that far behind.

Bermuda v Canada

Bermuda

C Foggo c Bhatti b Patel 53

F Crockwell c Rizwan Cheema b U Bhatti 12

S Outerbridge b U Bhatti 5

D Hemp run out (Surkari/RA Bhatti) 48

J Tucker lbw b Dhaniram 0

I Romaine c Dhaniram b U Bhatti 32

R Trott run out (Surkari/RA Bhatti) . . . . . . . 1

J DeSilva b U Bhatti 6

J Gilbert b Rizwan Cheema 1

J West not out 4

K Tucker run out 3

Total (all out: 47.5 overs) 181

Extras (b 2, lb 4, w 10) 16

Fall of wickets 1-3, 2-51, 3-115, 4-116, 5-158, 6-160, 7-163, 8-166, 9-174, 10-181

Bowling: C Hooper 6-0-31-0, Khurram Chohan 7-0-13-0-1, U Bhatti 10 0 48 4 4, H Patel 10 0 29 1, Dhaniram 10-0-42-1, T Bastiampillai 4.5 1 12 1

Canada

T Bastiampillai c J Tucker b West 66

R Cheema c Hemp b Kevin Tucker 8

H Patel c Foggo b Kevin Tucker 19

S Jyoti c Outerbridge b Trott 5

Z Surkari c Crockwell b Gilbert 32

U Limbada c Hemp b Gilbert 6

S Dhaniram not out 31

R Bhatti not out 3

Total (for six wicket: 42.4 overs) 183

Extras (b 1, lb 1, w 8, nb 3) 13

Fall of wickets: 1-16, 2-64, 3-87, 4-135, 5-137, 6-147

Did not bat: C Hooper, U Bhatti, K Chohan

Bowling: J DeSilva 6.4-0-39-0, K Tucker 9-0-34-2, J West 7-0-50-1, R Trott 10-1-30-1, J Gilbert 10-1-28-2

Man of the match: T Bastiampillai (Canada)

Umpires: H Smythe (Cayman Islands) and C Young (Cayman Islands)

Match referee: AFG Griffith (West Indies)

Reserve umpire: R Austin