Maple Leaf North-West Ground A (Bermuda won the toss): Bermuda beat Cayman Islands by seven wickets

Delray Rawlins hammered an unbeaten 42 from 21 balls as Bermuda eased to victory over Cayman Islands for their second triumph at the ICC T20 World Cup Americas Regional Final.

The former captain hit three fours and the same number of sixes for Bermuda to reach their target in 12.5 overs. Player of the match Jonté Smith, who also chipped in with 16 not out, took three for 19 while Zeko Burgess picked up two for 23 to hold Cayman to 121 for nine in 20 overs, a total largely aided by a 42-ball 51 from opening batter Jermaine Baker.

Victory moved Bermuda into second position in the four-team competition on four points, two behind unbeaten Canada with all four teams in the competition having played three matches.

Smith was delighted to exploit the seamer-friendly pitch to pick up his first wickets of the final qualifiers.

“The wicket had a lot of grass so I was able to seam the ball around,” the 30-year-old told The Royal Gazette.

“We just wanted to keep the score as low as possible. I felt the bowlers got off to a good start and Zeko got two wickets in the first over.

“We had a plan for all their batters and fortunately we executed those plans. We kept the score under 150, which was always the target, and I believe with our batting we kept our run-rate high.

“Having lost that first game to Canada, net run-rate is important because in that last game we might have a chance to qualify for the World Cup.”

Bermuda made two changes from the win over Bahamas on Monday with Jarryd Richardson and Alex Dore brought in for spinners Derrick Brangman and Dominic Sabir.

Terryn Fray, the Bermuda captain, said the decision to send Cayman in to bat was influenced by the absence of Brangman and Sabir.

“We chose to bowl because we dropped two key spinners so we didn't want to put too much pressure on the bowling attack coming second,” Fray said.

“The plan was to bowl back of a length, see if we can get key wickets in the powerplay and we did. Halfway through their innings, we figured out we could restrict them to 120, which we did.”

Walking in at No 4 after Bermuda had lost Marcus Scotland, Fray and Onias Bascome, Rawlins finally found his form in the middle. His 57-run fourth-wicket partnership with Smith ensured that Bermuda crossed the finish line with 22 balls to spare.

Scotland, who was pushed up the order, raced to 15 off eight balls before giving himself room to go for a big shot, only to be bowled by Romeo Dunka.

Alessandro Morris then applied the brakes to the Bermuda run chase. He bowled Fray for a laboured ten and the big-hitting Bascome, who had eased the pressure with a rapid 32 from 14 balls, missed a straight ball from the 42-year-old spinner.

After being asked to set a target, Cayman were on the ropes in the first over when Burgess picked up two wickets. He first beat Akshay Naidoo for pace and got the opener caught behind by Sinclair Smith.

Ramon Sealy went fishing on the off side and only succeeded in getting an edge behind to depart for a first-ball duck. Burgess was on a hat-trick but batter Samuel Foster watched the ball zip through to the wicketkeeper.

Chare Smith, fired up by his best figures of two for 11 against Bahamas on Sunday, picked up his fifth international wicket when Foster played the ball straight to Rawlins at point.

Left arm spinners Rawlins and Kevon Fubler were introduced into the bowling attack at the end of the powerplay, with the pressure that had been built earlier on by the seamers being loosened.

Just when Cayman were looking to rebuild their innings, excellent work in the field by Burgess brought the fourth wicket for Bermuda with Dunka run out. Brian Corbin could have gone without scoring had Jonté Smith not dropped him in the deep off Fubler’s bowling.

Smith recovered from that missed chance to claim the big wicket of Baker, with Marcus Scotland taking the catch. In his third over, the seamer trapped Walker leg-before and bowled Conroy Wright.

Smith ensured that Corbin did not do much damage at the end of the Cayman innings by taking an excellent catch off Rawlins’s bowling in the penultimate over.

Meanwhile, in the afternoon match, Canada defeated Bahamas by ten wickets after a lengthy rain delay resulted in the fixture being reduced to 11 overs per side.

Bermuda will seek to keep the pressure on Canada when they clash with Bahamas on Thursday morning before the Canadians going take on Cayman in the afternoon.