Bermuda came to within a single run of savouring a fourth straight win during an action-packed 20 overs shootout with Wanderers Cricket Club at Gilbert Park, Trinidad, yesterday.

Only three days after narrowly defeating Wanderers by 13 runs in a 50-overs contest, Bermuda returned to Gilbert Park full of confidence with three successive wins under their belts.

And after scoring 144 runs for the loss of nine wickets in their allotted 20 overs, the tourists seemed destined for even more success in their final match on tour of the Caribbean.

Yet it was just not to be as Wanderers? tail wagged to deny Bermuda outright victory and earn the host team a hard-fought tie in another nail-biting contest that went right down to the wire in near darkness.

?The game of cricket is very funny and I?m just glad we didn?t lose,? commented deputising Bermuda skipper Dwayne (Sluggo) Leverock after an absorbing afternoon of cricket played in overcast conditions.

?We were able to keep our unbeaten streak alive and I thought the guys put in another great effort. They hung in there when times got tough and did not panic.

?They managed to remain level headed and come away with a tie.?

After Wanderers? explosive bat Avelone Cuffy had been dismissed in the 16th over, one sensed that Bermuda had the game in the bag.

However, the home team refused to go down without a fight.

?At that stage all we had to do was try to prevent the boundaries to put more pressure on them,? Leverock added.

?I would have preferred a win today, but at least a tie is better than a loss.?

Overall, Leverock described the tour as very ?productive?.

?Our youngsters came into the team and did really well while the senior players led from the front,? he said.

Needing 13 runs for victory of the final over, Wanderers managed three runs from Lionel Cann?s first three deliveries before tailender Attiba Alerte (six) was caught behind by wicketkeeper Dean Minors to keep the match balanced on a knife edge.

Number 11 bat Timmothy Moniz then scored three runs off Cann?s fourth delivery and Clifton Hall two off the penultimate ball of the over, leaving Wanderers to score five runs off the final ball of the match for victory.

Cann slightly over-pitched his final delivery, enabling Hall to rock on the back foot and pull the veteran all rounder down to the fine leg boundary for four to tie the game in a knot.

It was another exciting match between the two teams, and one that again saw the pendulum swing both ways.

Opener Orin Ford and Avelone Cuffy each scored 32 runs for Wanderers while Jamaican batsman Dean Woolcock fired an aggressive 29 and Hall a timely unbeaten knock of 25 that salvaged a share of the spoils for the home team.

Bermuda?s spin king Leverock led the local bowling with economical figures of three for 16 off four overs while fellow leg spinner Hasan Durham returned equally superb figures of two for ten off four overs including one maiden.

Mackie Crane, returning from a hamstring injury, and Treadwell Gibbons Jr seized one for 29 and one for 22 respectively to help contain a Wanderers side stacked with big bats.

Earlier, Dean Minors (49) fell one run shy of a second half century on tour. Again promoted to opener, Minors and Stephen Bremar Jr (four) added 22 runs for the first wicket before the latter virtually threw his wicket away when he was run out attempting to cross for two runs on an overthrow in the fourth over.

But it didn?t take Bermuda long to shake off the effects of the early setback as Minors added another 64 runs in the space of five overs for the second wicket along with Daniel Morgan (eight) before he was finally caught at long off attempting another boundary.

Minors blasted ten fours and a six before falling just shy of what would have been another deserved 50.

At this point Bermuda were well on top of the bowling, cruising along at 90 for two after the first ten overs.

However, Minors? dismissal triggered a middle order collapse as the next four wickets fell for the addition of only 14 runs in the space of five overs.

Morgan was bowled playing across the line and he was quickly joined in the pavilion by Azeem Pitcher ? unfortunately run out responding to a call for a single that was never on ? for one and Cann (three) caught at long off attempting to lift leg spinner Woolcock out of the park.

However, Durham (13) would add another 16 runs for the seventh wicket with Gibbons (14) and ten runs for the eighth wicket with Crane (three) before he was bowled attempting to glance pacer Alerte down to the unprotected third man boundary.

Crane and Jekon Edness (1no) then frustrated the Wanderers bowlers for another ten runs before the former was the last wicket to fall on the final ball of the innings.

Left arm leg spinner Nicholas Ramjass was the pick of the Wanderers bowling, claiming two wickets for 12 runs off four overs, while Woolcock had two for 14 and Alerte two for 18 respectively.

Bermuda depart Trinidad today.