The first time the Panama cricket team came to Bermuda in 2023, they finished the ICC Men's T20 World Cup Americas Region Final without a win.

Panama lost four games with two of their matches failing to produce results because of bad weather. They finished at the bottom of the table behind Cayman Islands, Bermuda and Canada, the tournament winners.

But the Central American country has fared much better at the ICC Men's T20 World Cup Americas Sub-regional Qualifier, which concludes at North Field, National Sports Centre, tomorrow.

After their opening game against Belize was abandoned, wins over Brazil and Bahamas had Jagdish Ahir’s side dreaming ahead of their final fixture of the qualifiers against Bermuda on Thursday.

Panama, ranked 69th in the world, faced Bermuda, rated 31st globally, in their last match of the qualifiers and if they had won they would have beaten Bermuda to the one qualification spot for the regional final.

But Bermuda cantered to a ten-wicket victory to maintain their unbeaten record against Panama, with Cal Waldron’s side practically booking their spot in the deciding tournament alongside Cayman Islands, Canada and the United States.

With Bermuda finishing things off against Brazil on Saturday, Anilkumar Natubhai Ahir, the Panama captain, expressed satisfaction with how things panned out for his team this week.

“We played good cricket throughout the tournament and we are happy about that,” Ahir told The Royal Gazette.

“This time the weather was much better, the last time we did not play two matches, but this time only one match was affected.

“Our team is very balanced in the bowling and batting department. We are absolutely disappointed that we did not get a win against Bermuda, but they played incredibly well today and they deserve to win, so credit to them for the way they played.

“In Panama, we have only four months to play cricket. After the four months, we have eight months of rain, so we didn’t practise much coming into this tournament.”

Next up for Panama is the South American Men’s Championship in August, when they will play Mexico, Brazil and Peru, in Colombia.

Nathan Ingleston, the Panama vice-captain felt that showed their ability on the international stage.

“We’ve shown we can compete with other nations who perhaps have a much greater history than Panama in terms of cricket,” Ingleston said.

“The next step for us is to try to get to the level that we saw today with the way the Bermuda team played.

“To be honest, Bermuda bowled really good lines and we didn’t step up to the occasion. We just played a little bit too carefully and with a bit of fear.

“With the quality they had, once they were on top they squeezed us. We’ve got to try and aim to get to the level that they were at today.”