Canada 156-8

Bermuda 106 Bermuda came up well short in a slugfest against old rivals Canada to lose their third straight World One-Day League match at the Nairobi Gymkhana yesterday — leaving them stranded at the bottom of the six-team table.

In a match which didn’t start until three in the afternoon and was reduced to 21 overs per side after overnight rain had drenched the outfield, it became a battle of the big hitters.

And ultimately the Canadians won hands down.

But much like their clash against Ireland two days earlier, this was a game which Bermuda could have won having got themselves in the perfect position to do so.

After Lionel Cann had smashed an incredible 41 in just 19 balls, including four sixes, to put his side on track for their first win in this tournament, inexplicably the last six batsmen fell for just 27 runs.

Their innings of 106, condemning them to a 56-run defeat, lasted just 15.5 overs.

Coach Gus Logie, visibly shaken by this latest setback, described his side’s batting as “senseless”.

The Island team’s only travelling supporter, Robert (Ice) Smith was far more scathing as he sat under a tent outside the pavilion, head in hands, as the final wicket fell.

“They can’t play cricket,” he moaned.

“It’s as simple as that. This team can’t play cricket.” A harsh assessment, but one perhaps even some of the players might find to difficult to argue with after again capitulating with victory well within their sights.

“We were going quite well and in nine overs we had 80-odd runs, we were already half-way there,” lamented Logie.

“All we needed to do was bat with sense. We had batters who could have just pushed the ball around, but somehow we had a moment of madness out there and the rest is history.

“There wasn’t one particular thing, but I just feel that not to bat 21 overs is a disservice to the game of cricket and what we’re capable of. There’s just no excuse for not batting 21 overs, whether you win the game or not.”

The coach admitted, however, he would have preferred the game to have been played over a full 50 overs.

“It’s not we wanted but that’s the format and it’s the same for both sides,” he said.

“Rain disrupted the whole game and unfortunately we had to play 21 overs. Possibly we would have liked to have played a 50-over game where we could have had an opportunity to settle and bat but we had to play this way. The opposition went out there and made 162 and that wasn’t beyond us, as we saw.”

Having won the toss for the first time this week, skipper Irving Romaine decided to make the Canadians bat first, and it might have been a decision that initially he regretted as openers Ashif Mulla and Sunil Dhaniram came out with all guns blazing.

Pace bowler Kevin Hurdle was despatched for 16 in the first over and Saleem Mukuddem would give up exactly the same in the next. At 32 without loss after two overs, Canada were off to a rip-roaring start.

But it all changed in the third as Hurdle had Mulla (20) caught on the mid-on boundary by Mukuddem and two balls later induced Dhaniram (10) to drive into the hands of Romaine at mid-off.

Star batsman John Davison came to the crease and was to remain there for the rest of the innings, finishing with a polished, unbeaten 69.

But wickets at the the other end were to fall at regular intervals as Canada kept the scoreboard ticking along for the most part at more than ten an over — a rate that finally slowed thanks to two fine spells of bowling from young Malachi Jones who returned two for 25 off five overs and Dwayne Leverock who took one for 24 off four.

In contrast, Mukuddem gave up 46 runs in his four wicket-less overs and Hurdle 38 in four.

From 35 for two, Canada slumped to 44 for three when the fast hands of wicket-keeper Dean Minors broke the stumps as Ashish Bagai (seven) tried to steal a single and with the total on 77, Abdool Samad was caught by Romaine off Jones.

Canada’s plight worsened when Desmond Chumney (seven) was superbly caught by Minors off Leverock’s first over and then Don Maxwell (13) was also snapped up by the wicket-keeper off Jones.

New bat George Coddrington made only one before he was bowled by Delyone Borden and at 110 for seven after 15 overs, Canada were reeling.

But Davison then took matters into his own hands, smashing a succession of boundaries as he took the score up to 148, when Umar Bhatti (ten) became the last wicket to fall, bowled by Janeiro Tucker.

Davison and Anderson Cummins belted 17 off the final over to swell the total to a challenging 162.

But facing a run rate of 7.76, the task didn’t seem beyond Bermuda’s batsmen, even in fading light.

And when Clay Smith and Dean Minors walloped Bhatti for 13 off the first over, the chase was on.

Minors (four) managed only one boundary before he got a faint edge to a Cummins delivery and was caught by wicket-keeper Ashish Bagai, and Smith departed for 15, caught just inside the boundary ropes by Dhaniram, also off Cummins. But Canada’s celebrations were short-lived.

Promoted up the order, Cann, and number four bat Irving Romaine embarked on an onslaught which produced 30 runs in three overs. In the fifth over Cann crushed two sixes and a four off Henry Osinde. He whacked the same bowler for two more sixes but it was Osinde who had the last laugh, bowling the big hitter for 41 with a full toss in the seventh over with the total on 64.

David Hemp and Irving Romaine helped maintain a fast pace before Hemp was stumped by Bagai off spinner George Codrington for nine with the total now on 79.

However, it was perhaps the next wicket that turned the game in Canada’s favour.

At 88 for four in just the 11th over, Romaine (nine) and Janeiro Tucker attempted a suicidal second run which saw the skipper fail to make his ground.

From that point it was all downhill as from 88 for five, Bermuda collapsed to 106 all out, spinner Dhaniram grabbing four of the last five wickets.

Tucker fell lbw for six, Mukuddem in the same fashion for 13, Jones was caught behind without scoring, Borden caught and bowled by Davison for two and Leverock lbw to Dhaniram for nought.