UKM-YSD Oval, Kuala Lumpur (Bermuda won toss): Kuwait (2pts) beat Bermuda (0) by five wickets

Bermuda advanced to the Super Six stage of the ICC Cricket World Cup Challenge League Play-off despite defeat by Kuwait in their final preliminary group match.

The result left Bermuda level with Saudi Arabia on two points in group A but Delray Rawlins’s men advanced because of their superior head-to-head record, courtesy of a four-run win on Thursday — a rule that caught some in the contingent by surprise.

Bermuda will take on Tanzania, Vanuatu and Bahrain in the crossover phase of the tournament, from which four countries will advance to the Challenge League proper.

Captain Rawlins is happy to still be in the tournament, but like coach Cal Waldron is craving a complete performance.

“It was tough to lose,” Rawlins told The Royal Gazette. “If we’re honest with ourselves, we were about 30-40 runs too short from the position we were in at halfway and towards the start of the back end.

“There’s still a chance to qualify for the top four, but we have to be disappointed with the result in the end.”

Waldron is seeing green shoots from this Bermuda team that has a mixture of youth and experience, but admits the improvements are coming at a pace that may be too slow to leave a defining impact in Malaysia.

“It was a mixed day,” he said. “We did make progress in batting 50 overs. Unfortunately we didn’t put enough runs on the board. I can’t fault the effort of the guys — I applaud them — it’s just the execution we just need to work on.

“Kudos that we’ve qualified, but it’s harder now because we carry no points through and have to play catch-up. Hopefully we’ll put a full game together and it will look as good as it should look.

“Some of our players will feel they have unfinished business. As I said, we’re making progress, but it’s steady and slow.”

Although not a must-win, yesterday’s match was important in that it provided Bermuda the chance to start the Super Sixes on the front foot — instead, they will be bottom of the pack and hampered significantly by a vastly inferior net run-rate largely owing to the 157-run defeat by Italy.

After Rawlins won his third straight toss, Terryn Fray was reunited with Marcus Scotland, who was restored at the top of the order.

In the seventh over, with the score on 23, the young opener couldn’t resist a lifting ball from Ilyas Ahmed and guided to first slip where an easy catch was taken.

Chris Douglas joined Fray and together the Somerset Cup Match openers played freely in a partnership of 53 in ten overs.

Douglas (22) was caught at backward point shortly after spin was introduced and when Tre Manders was adjudged leg-before for one shortly thereafter, Bermuda were 78 for three.

Rawlins and Fray then compiled the second half-century partnership of the innings.

With the captain looking set for another big score, disaster struck in the 32nd over when he was served up a slow full toss. Waiting on the wide long-on boundary was Meet Bhavsar, who didn’t have to move to complete one of his four catches — his day would get even better.

Rawlins gone for 31 with the score 128 for four.

Fray continued his fine form, completing another patient half-century, off 86 balls with two fours.

He was unable, though, to add to his score of 50 when he was caught at short cover leaving Bermuda 139 for five in the 35th over.

By this time, Kamau Leverock was looking settled, but just as he was threatening to cut loose, the left-hander fell into the short-ball trap and deposited an upper cut to Bhavsar on the cover boundary.

His run-a-ball 21 contained one four and two sixes, with Bermuda now 156 for six and 13 overs remaining.

This brought together the two youngest members of the squad, Dominic Sabir and Jarryd Richardson, the latter making his debut in place of injured first-choice wicketkeeper Sinclair Smith, who suffered a calf injury against Saudi Arabia.

They ran well between the wickets and put on a useful 32 runs for the eighth wicket before Richardson lofted a shot to deep mid-on for 11.

Zeko Burgess (0) came and left, quickly followed by Sabir (24) attempting a scoop and suddenly Bermuda were in danger of not only not reaching 200 but not batting their full complement of 50 overs.

Chare Smith, who replaced Allan Douglas Jr in the starting XI, came in at No 11 to join Derrick Brangman at 191 for nine with the task of surviving the remaining overs and getting Bermuda to the 200 mark.

Not only did they achieve those two goals but they produced an unbeaten partnership of 35, of which 16 came off the final over, as Brangman hit two fours and a six in his unbeaten 32.

Right-arm quick Sayed Monib reaped the rewards of his Neil Wagner-esque approach, with all his wickets in a return of five for 40 coming in an aggressive second spell that induced more than a handful of false shots.

Bermuda’s 226 for nine, then, looked a sub-par score at the interval and Kuwait’s reply confirmed as much.

Opener Bhavsar, who had scored four runs in his previous two innings, laid the foundation with a polished century (101).

The left-hander hit five fours and two sixes, but did survive a difficult legside chance to wicketkeeper Jarryd Richardson when he was on ten and the score at 25, and then another to Tre Manders at mid-wicket after he had passed fifty.

Other than those hiccups, Bhavsar made batting look easy and he received steady support from team-mates as they took comfortable singles and worked the ball on the ground on both sides of the pitch.

There was brief hope that Bermuda could pull off a miracle win when two wickets went down quickly to make the score 196 for five in the 46th over but there were no further alarms as Bilal Tahir (25) and captain Mohammed Aslam (10) saw the Kuwaitis home comfortably with 12 balls to spare.

Brangman, Leverock, Burgess, Sabir and Rawlins claimed one wicket each as Bermuda toiled in the afternoon Malaysian sunshine.

Their World Cup hopes are still alive, but already starting at the bottom of the Super Six with two carried-over defeats and a poor net run-rate, they will need to win two of the three remaining matches.

First up on Wednesday are Tanzania.