KING CITY (day three of four): Canada (228 & 32-4) with six second innings wickets remaining trail Bermuda (237 & 248) by 226 runs.

A captain's innings from Irving Romaine and some fine bowling from Stefan Kelly and Dwayne Leverock have put Bermuda on the verge of their first Intercontinental Cup win in five games.

Chasing 258 to win, Canada slumped to 32-4 by the close of yesterday's third day, and it would take a minor miracle to stop Gus Logie's team from wrapping up their third win of the tour.

It was a major turn around in fortunes for Bermuda who began yesterday on the brink of defeat, and a game that had swung one way and then another finally looked like getting away from the tourists.

It wasn't all good news for Bermuda however, who lost bowler George O'Brien before the start of play yesterday after the fast bolwer aggravated an ankle injury in the morning warm-up.

Having bowled Canada out for 228 in the first innings to gain a slender lead, all that good work was undone on Saturday afternoon as, in the space of three overs, Oronde Bascome, Chris Foggo, and Steven Outerbridge all lost their wickets to leave Bermuda on 40-3.

Romaine's innings yesterday was a lesson in determination and concentration and helped rescue Bermuda after they had collapsed to 78-5 at the end of the second day.

The skipper batted for almost five hours and faced 276 balls for his score of 84, and while it was tough going at times, it was just what the tourists needed.

Jekon Edness chipped in with a useful 46 in a stand of 82 for the sixth wicket, a stand that lasted for 48 overs and at one point saw Sunil Dhaniram, the Canada bowler, send down seven consecutive maidens.

Dhaniram was the pick of Canada's attack yesterday, bowling an impressive 42.5 overs, 24 of which were maidens and taking four for 36 in the process.

His economy rate of 0.84 largely contributed to the painfully slow progress of Bermuda's innings.

Edness finally fell with the score on 160, but any hope the Canada side might have had of ending the Bermuda innings early slowly disappeared as Romaine and Leverock dug in to further frustrate the home team.

The pair kept their composure and added a vital 65 runs before Romaine was finally out caught by his opposite number Ian Billcliff as he chased a wide delivery from Saad bin Zafar.

Canada did well to clean up the Bermuda tail ¿ a feat they couldn't accomplish in the first innings ¿ Ryan Steede was caught at short cover by Geoff Barnett off the bowling of Saad bin Zafar, who claimed four wickets for 58 runs in his 25 overs.

Bermuda were finally all out for 248, and then had 12 overs left before the close of play to try and make some in roads into the Canada innings.

Kelly shone in the absence of O'Brien, dismissing the dangerous Abdool Samad for a golden duck and then had Trevin Bastiampillai caught as the home side collapsed to 10-2.

Opener Geoff Barnett looked to be making a strong start, but Dwayne Leverock dismissed him in his first over when Barnett tried to turn a ball to the leg side, but instead fed a simple chance to Stefan Kelly at leg slip.

It looked like Ian Billcliff and Saad bin Zafar would see their way to the end of the day safely, but in the final over before stumps bin Zafar was caught by Chris Foggo at bat pad off the bowling of Leverock to put Canada at 32 for four at stumps.