USA, 101-5, beat Canada 100, by five wickets.

Aditya Thyagarajan hit an unbeaten 27 as USA won the inaugural ICC Americas Twenty20 Championship yesterday.

The Americans eased their way to a comfortable victory over Canada at the National Sports Centre, in a game they dominated from start to finish.

Their triumph more than made up for the two defeats they had suffered at the hands of Canada over the previous eight days, including a seven wicket thumping in the group stages of this competition on Saturday.

While Thyagarajan saw his side to victory in his 26 ball innings, USA set the platform for their win with an inspired performance in the field that had their opponents at 16 for four at one stage.

Skipper Steve Massiah led the way, taking three wickets for 21 runs, but it was the loss of openers Rizwan Cheema and Hiral Patel, who both fell to pace bowler Timroy Allen, that really set the tone.

Cheema had racked up more than 300 runs during his side's triumph in the 50 over competition last week, but he managed just two yesterday, before trying to cut a short ball from Allen and being caught behind.

From then on, USA were always on top, and despite a battling 43 from Sandeep Jyoti, Canada never really got back into the game, and Umar Bhatti (19) was the only other batsmen to get into double figures.

Only briefly did the Americans look like they might be in a little bit of trouble, and that was at the start of their innings when Lennox Cush and Massiah were both out inside the first two overs and USA were six for two.

However, opener Sushil Nadkarni steadied the ship with a composed 25, and when he fell Thyagarajan and Orlando Baker (21) took over. Canada might have felt they had a chance when they got Baker out, and reduced USA to 60 for four, but in truth the game was already beyond them.

Carl Wright came in and hit an unbeaten 21 at the death, and his attitude might have been different if his team were chasing a bigger total. Needing 101 to win meant they never had to do anything other than push the singles, and wait for the bad ball.

"It was a perfect finish for our campaign, we came with not such an experienced team," said Massiah, "It was a total team effort, and we couldn't have asked for anything better. It's great to lift the inaugural Twenty20 Americas Championship.

"We always thought once we pushed them (Canada) back a bit with the quality of our bowling attack we could exploit their middle order, which hasn't been really tested. They have batted second probably 90 percent of the time, so it was a great toss to win, and we had them on the back foot pretty much from the start and it was perfect.

"I thought we played brilliant team cricket, and we've thoroughly enjoyed each other's company and at the end of the day it just showed up in our performance.

"This team has an enormous amount of potential, because there are quite a few exciting young talents, blended with some very experienced players."

While it was a group effort that got USA past Canada, Massiah's side were only in the final because of Lennox Cush and Rashad Marshall, who guided them to a two-wicket win over Bermuda in a nail-biting, last ball, semi-final thriller yesterday morning.

Not that USA would have expected the game to go down to the last ball, especially after they had restricted Bermuda to 137-5 from their 20 overs.

Once again USA's bowlers had control of proceedings early on, and with Bermuda at 54 for two in the tenth over, the chances of them getting to a defendable total looked slim. That they managed to get as many runs as they did was mostly due to David Hemp's 47 off just 27 balls.

And if Hemp hadn't dragged an Allen delivery on to his stumps with little more than two overs remaining, then Bermuda may well have passed 150.

That Bermuda nearly won was entirely down to yet another impressive performance in the field, something that is quickly becoming their hallmark.

Struggling at 18 for three, and then at 65 for six, Cush anchored his USA's innings, hitting 65 off 53 balls, and his stand of 56 with Marshall (25*) for the seventh wicket kept his team in the hunt.

The game was decided in a crazy penultimate over, when Bermuda dropped two catches, picked up two wickets, and should have taken a third to decide the game.

Stephen Dill began the over by letting Marshall off the hook when he dropped a regulation caught and bowled, but still had the presence of mind to run out Cush who had backed up too far.

He then had Allen caught on the boundary by Shannon Rayner. And from the last ball Marshall launched a shot skywards towards Stephen Outerbridge at long on, who got underneath it, dropped it, recovered to juggle it, seemed to have his hand on it, and then dropped it again.

Needing 15 from the last over, Marshall worked the ball around well, hit Jim West's third ball for six, and with one needed from the final ball, USA got home.

Elation for Massiah and his men, devastation for Bermuda, who never really recovered. Sent to St David's to play in a third-place play-off against Cayman, who Canada had beaten in the other semi-final, Bermuda struggled to rouse themselves for the occasion and were beaten by two wickets, with five balls to spare.

TWENTY20 FINAL

USA v CANADA

CANADA

R Cheema c Wright b Allen 2

Patel b Allen 0

Surkari b Cush 6

Jyoti c Thyagarajan b Baker 43

Dhaniram c Wright b Cush 0

Hansra c Allen b Baker 19

U Bhatti c Williams b Massiah 4

U Limbada c Williams b Muhammad Ghous 1

K Chohan c Nadkarni b Massiah 4

R Bhatti+ st Wright b Massiah 9

Baidwan not out 6

Extras (4lb, 2w) 6

Total (all out: 19.3 overs ) 100

Fall of wickets: 1-2, 2 -6, 3-16, 4-16, 5-60, 6-78, 7-78, -79, 9-88

Bowling: Cush 4-0-10-2, Allen 4-0-21-2, M Ghous 4-0-19-1, Baker 4-0-25-2, Massiah 3.3-0-21-3

USA

Nadkarni c Baidwan b Patel 25

Cush b Khurram Chohan 1

Massiah c R Cheema b K Chohan 1

Baker c Hansra b Dhaniram 21

Thyagarajan not out 27

Williams c & b Patel 1

Wright not out 21

Extras (4w ) 4

Total (for five wickets: 18.3 overs) 101

Fall of wickets: 1-3, 2-6, 3-42, 4-60, 5-64

Did not bat: M Ghous, Allen, Marshall, Moazzam Imtiaz.

Bowling: Baidwan 3-0-13-0, Khurram Chohan 3-0-19-2, Dhaniram 4-0-27-1, Patel 4-1-17-2, Jyoti 2.3-0-17-0, U Bhatti 1-0-5-0, Rizwan Cheema 1-0-3-0

Man of the match: O Baker (USA)

Umpires: S Douglas and C Young

Third umpire: R Austin

Match referee: AFG Griffith

Twenty20 Semi-finals

@$:Bermuda v USA

Bermuda

C Foggo c Wright b Ghous 24

S Rayner c Wright b Gordon 10

S Outerbridge c Wright b Cush 18

D Hemp b Allen 47

J Tucker c Ghous b Allen 5

I Romaine not out 4

R Trott not out 10

Extras (3b, 7lb, 8w, 1nb) 19

Total (for five wickets: 20 overs) 137

Fall of wickets: 1-23, 2-54, 3-98, 4-123, 5-124

Did not bat: K Tucker, J West, J Gilbert, S Dill

Bowling: T Allen 4-0-14-2, A Gordon 4-0-21-1, M Ghous 4-0-14-1, O Baker 3-0-27-0, L Cush 3-0-34-1, S Massiah 2-0-17-0.

USA

S Nadkarni c Hemp b K Tucker 1

L Cush run out (Dill) 65

S Massiah c Romaine b K Tucker 1

O Baker run out (Dill) 0

C Williams c Hemp, b Trott 5

A Thyaharajan c Romaine b Gilbert 12

C Wright c J Tucker b Trott 4

R Marshall not out 25

T Allen c Rayner b Dill 0

M Ghous not out 4

Extras (2lb, 15w, 2nb) 21

Total (for eight wickets: 20 overs) ... . .... .138

Fall of wickets: 1-2, 2-6, 3-18, 4-44, 5-60, 6-65, 7-121, 8-122

Did not bat: A Gordon

Bowling: K Tucker 4-0-19-2, S Dill 4-0-27-1, R Trott 4-0-28-2, J Gilbert 4-0-25-1, J Tucker 2-0-20-0, J West 2-0-17-0.

Man of the match: L Cush

Umpires: S Douglas, C Young.

CANADA v CAYMAN ISLANDS

Cayman Islands

R Sealy c Patel b Chohan 0

R Roach c R Bhatti b Chohan 1

O Willis b Chohan 16

R Bovell c Jyoti b Chohan 0

K Bazil lbw Chohan 18

S De Alwis c Hooper b U Bhatti 0

S Mohamed not out 62

C Wright not out 43

Extras (4b, 1lb, 8w) 13

Total (for six wickets: 20 overs) 148

Fall of wickets: 1-0, 2-18, 3-18, 4-30, 5-37, –6-41.

Did not bat: C Wright, R Ebanks, M Bryan, K Ebanks.

Bowling: Chohan 4-2-5-5, Hooper 1-0-17-0, U Bhatti 4-0-33-1, Patel 4-1-9-0, Dhaniram 4-0-35-0, Cheema 3-0-49-0.

Canada

T Bastiampillai b C Wright 3

R Cheema b Bazil 25

H Patel c Mohamed b R Bovell 19

S Jyoti not out 58

S Dhaniram run out 30

U Limbada b B azil 0

A Hansra not out 5

Extras (1b, 5lb, 9w) 15

Total (for five wickets: 16.4 overs) 149

Fall of wickets: 1-5, 2-50, 3-52, 4-130, 5-132.

Did not bat: C Hooper, U Bhatti, K Chohan, R Bhatti.

Bowling: Wright 3-0-20-1, M Bryan 1-0-15-0, Bovell 4-0-34-1, Bazil 4-0-30-2, Mohamed 3-0-27-0, K Ebanks 1-0-14-0, Willis 0.4-0-9-0.

Man of the match: K Chohan.

Umpires: R Dill, K Bayney.