Maple Leaf North-West Ground A (Bermuda won the toss): Canada beat Bermuda by 110 runs

Bermuda’s World Cup hopes are hanging by a thread after they were bowled out for just 95 runs by Canada in their opening match at the ICC T20 World Cup Americas final qualifier on Sunday.

Derrick Brangman followed bowling figures of two wickets for 47 runs with an unbeaten 32 at No 7, but his effort together with the 22 scored by Dominic Sabir, was not enough to save Bermuda from their fourth-lowest score in a T20 international.

Canada, powered by a 35-ball 63 from Yuvraj Samra and 49 not out by player of the match Harsh Thaker, earlier posted a challenging 205 for five.

Bermuda captain Fray was disappointed by the team’s performance on a day when he felt nothing went their way.

“We had a couple of plans and at times it worked but think we could have bowled tighter to create more pressure,” Fray said.

“I thought Canada batted really well and it was always going to be a tough chase. It wasn't easy to bat, the wicket had some bounce and that just puts doubt in your mind as a batsman.

“Once you see a ball come up off a length like that, you tend not to want to go too far forward. Credit to their fast bowlers, Sana and Heyliger, they bowled in some really good areas.

“We were just not on it with the bat. We lost some wickets that I thought were key and we had two run outs that could have been easily avoided, so I think we were not completely focused for that job.”

Bermuda’s run chase never got going from the moment Tre Manders ran himself out in the second over, with the opening batter guilty of not grounding his bat when going for a tight single and Canada captain Nicholas Kirton’s direct hit catching him short.

Fray smacked Dillon Heyliger for a six at the start of the fourth over, but he perished when caught and bowled by the same bowler two balls later.

Kaleem Sana, in his third over, mopped up Onias Bascome for four and Marcus Scotland to put himself on a hat-trick and leave Bermuda reeling at 18 for four. Sabir blocked out the hat-trick delivery.

The in-form Delray Rawlins became Shivam Sharma’s first wicket when the former captain was stumped for ten. At the halfway stage, Bermuda were 52 for five, way below the required run-rate of 15.4 per over.

It was one-way traffic from there with Sana (three for 16) and Thaker (two for five) mopping up the remaining batters. Jermal Proctor was another to throw his wicket away by taking it easy for a single and getting run out with a direct hit.

After asking Canada to set a target, Chare Smith struck with the first ball of his second over to pick up the big wicket of Aaron Johnson, who top edged to Fray at point.

Samra struck 24 off one over from Smith to take Canada’s score to 72 for one at the end of the powerplay.

Sabir almost had Pargat Singh in his first over, but the Canadian No 3 was dropped on 15 by Marcus Scotland. The missed chance did not cost Bermuda much as an exceptional catch from Sabir on the boundary handed Brangman his first wicket.

Brangman nearly got a second at the end of the over when Samra, on 43, picked out Smith only for the fielder to put down a sitter.

Kirton departed in the tenth over with Brangman getting his second wicket when Zeko Burgess showed his team-mates how to take catches.

Rawlins then held a catch off his bowling to get rid of Samra but the damage had already been done.

Rawlins gave away only two runs in his third over as Bermuda slowed Canada down. Burgess made a strong comeback after being hit for six at the start of his third over as he bowled five dot balls to Jaskaran Buttar, a former India A player.

Brangman went for 21 runs in the last over as Canada passed the 200-run mark for the seventh time in T20 Internationals.

Cal Waldron’s side will be seeking to bounce back when they face Bahamas in their second match of the double round-robin tournament on Monday. They place Bahamas and Cayman Islands twice each during the week, before they meet Canada again next Sunday.

“We’re now forced to play aggressive cricket if we really want to give ourselves an opportunity,” the Bermuda captain said.

“The good thing is that you get to play everyone twice. Even if it doesn’t come down mathematically in the end where we can still qualify, the opportunity to play Canada and compete in that final match again will be there.

“The next four matches coming up for us we will have to be aggressive, we’ll try to get it as close as we possibly can and leave it to that last weekend.”