Bermuda (2 pts) 130-3, beat Bahamas (0 pts) 128 all out, by seven wickets

Bermuda beat Bahamas comfortably in the opening match of the ICC Americas Championship, but despite the margain of victory it was a far from convincing effort.

The visitors managed to score 128 when they had been 19 for five at one stage, and but for a dropped catch before the lunch interval, Bermuda's run chase might have taken on a very different feel.

The home side were never in any serious danger of losing yesterday, but they made it harder than it had need to be and coach David Moore certainly had some food for thought after his first win on home soil.

"The bottom line is that it is always important to get a win, there's no doubt about that but I would like to have done it in a more convincing fashion. I think we let them back into the game a number of times, when we should have just closed the deal.

"The bowling wasn't that bad, I think it was just our whole aura in the field wasn't what I wanted it to be. The body language wasn't good, the intensity wasn't as good as I would expect, the attitude wasn't as good as I would have expected.

"I think all in all, that whole fielding effort was just too inconsistent. We started slowly, then we built up, obviously got those five wickets, then we took the foot off the pedal and let them back in the game. Then we cleaned them up, at the end.

"When you play you should want to dominate, and we just didn't do that. The main aim of a bowling effort is to get a team out as quickly as possible and there are going to be a partnership or two, but you have to battle through that and finish the game off."

That isn't to say that there weren't plenty of positives to take out of yesterday's game. Kevin Tucker took three wickets for just nine runs from eight overs as he and Malachi Jones (two for 22) decimated the top order.

Joshua Gilbert, meanwhile, claimed two wickets and took two catches on his debut for the senior national team.

"I wasn't really nervous," said Gilbert. "It's not really a big change from playing Under-19s, so I'm pretty used to the pressure. It feels great to be involved.

"I set myself a goal of ten wickets for the tournament, which is two a game if I play every game and I want an economy rate under five, but we'll see how it goes. I hope I'm playing against Argentina, I just want to play every game."

Gilbert had known he was playing the night before. Tucker in contrast was a late replacement for Jordan DeSilva, who was dropped after arriving more than an hour late at the ground yesterday morning.

While Gilbert will fancy his chances of playing today, DeSilva may well find himself on the sidelines once more as Tucker's performance did not go unnoticed.

"Jordan didn't play because he was late," said Moore. "That's the bottom line and that's unacceptable within the standards we have set the team. He knows that, he was very apologetic, but that's the way this team operates now. And he gave a guy a chance and he (Tucker) took it very well, and you never give a sucker an even break."

At 19 for five Bermuda were cruising, but opener Hamilton Gilliard and Dwight Weakley put on 23 for the sixth wicket before Gilliard fell to Janeiro Tucker with the score on 42. Gilliard took 57 balls to make his six runs and his difficulties with the bat summed up that of his side.

With Bahamas 42 for six, Bermuda should have killed the game but Weakley (28) and Ekanayake (52 not out) put on 42 for the seventh wicket and gave a little bit of belief to the lower order.

The run chase started badly for Bermuda when opener Fiqre Crockwell mistimed a pull shot and was caught by Ekanayake with the score on just eight. With the home side seeing out four overs before the lunch break, things might have been even worse if Rohan Parkes, fielding at cover, had been able to hold on to a full-blooded drive from Stephen Outerbridge.

As it was, Outerbrigde (36) survived long enough to see his side well on the way to victory and David Hemp (34 not out), and Janeiro Tucker (15 not out) eventually saw Bermuda home with more than 20 overs to spare.

Today Bermuda take on Argentina at Bailey's Bay and Moore will be looking for some significant improvements as the team build towards the harder games to follow.

"We just need to keep improving and the bottom line is that we have to execute our plans," said Moore. "We know what we want to do, we have to be disciplined, we need to have positive attitudes, we need to close the game off, and what we have to do is execute those plans.

"I don't think we executed those very well (against Bahamas), we still were able to win and sometimes when you don't play as well as you would like and you win, that's a bonus."

The Australian will wait until this morning to decide on his team to face Argentina, but Justin Pitcher definitely won't be playing. The St David's bowler has an injury to his right shoulder.

n In the match at St. David's, Canada defeated Cayman Islands by eight wickets. In a rain delayed-game, Cayman scored 132 for nine in 40 overs and Canada replied with 132 for two in 20.1 overs.

At Wellington Oval, USA compiled a massive total of 347 for six in 50 overs overs and Argentina were 100 for three in 27 overs at last report.

Despite assurances by Bermuda Cricket Board that scores for all matches would be posted on their website, by 10.30 last night no information was available.

The International Cricket Council confirmed the result between Canada and Caymans but were unable to report the final result of the game between USA and Argentina. And efforts by The Royal Gazette to obtain the result were unsuccessful.