8 October, 2023
A decisive 39run victory over tournament hosts and points table leaders Bermuda in the final winner deciding match of the tournament has secured Canada a qualification berth at the 2024 World Cup. Canada will now be one of the twenty participating teams at next year’s ICC T20 World Cup, to be jointly hosted by the West Indies and USA.
Electing to take first strike after skipper Saad Bin Zafar had called correctly at the toss for the tournament decider, which was reduced to eighteen overs by the aftereffects of Tropical Storm Phillipe, Canada posted 134/4 in its allowable overs. Bermuda in response was scuttled for 93 in 16.5 overs.
The Canadian victorious effort was laid on the foundation of the outstanding batting of Navneet Dhaliwal, Nicholas Kirton and Dillon Heyliger. Superbly supported as it was by the superlative bowling of the tournament’s leading wicket-taker Kaleem Sana.
Canada’s openers Aaron Johnson and Navneet Dhaliwal got their innings off to a productive start, posting 28 in 4.2 overs. Johnson having scored 15 off 13 balls with two fours and one six, again fell victim to Cejay Outerbridge’s left-arm seam for the second time in the tournament.
Pargat Singh, batting at number three and coming off his outstanding half-century in the Canada’s previous match against Panama, again struggled to be sufficiently aggressive. He, however, stuck around long enough to add a further 28 in partnership with Dhaliwal for the second wicket, before becoming the first of Dominic Sabir’s two victims.
Singh was gone for 9, and with 9.2 of the allowable overs having already been bowled the Canadians might have considered sending either Nicholas Kirton or Dillon Heyliger in at number four and ahead of Harsh Thaker. Instead, they stuck to their original script with Thaker in at three to join Dhaliwal.
Together they added 39 off the next 34 deliveries faced before Thaker departed, having contributed 21 of those from 22 balls and with only a single boundary to his name. Dhaliwal, attempting to increase the scoring rate, was caught at longon off the bowling of Sabir for 45 made from 38 balls faced and with one six and four boundaries included.
Dhaliwal’s departure finally allowed the belated entry of the belligerent Dillon Heyliger to the proceedings. The burly all-rounder remained true to his natural aggressive ways striking a six off the very first ball he faced in making 10 from 7 balls faced. He was, however, very much the second fiddle to Nicholas Kirton whose 10 ball 26 was graced with two fours and as many sixes. The second of which was struck off the final ball of the innings, as Canada ended on 132/4 from its 18 overs.
133 to win from 18 available overs might have seemed initially to be a cakewalk for the one thousand plus home crowd supported Bermudians. Especially against the almost identical Canadian bowling attack they had plundered for 180 in the tournament opener just seven days before.
Different day changed circumstances and an entirely reversed result, however, as the Bermudian batters proved to be wholly inadequate against the reinvigorated Canadian bowling attack. Superbly marshalled as it was by Canada’s skipper Saad Bin Zafar.
The Canadian bowling effort was once again led by Kaleem Sana with his outstanding left-arm seam. Sana ended with the incredible figures of 3/4-3.5 to take his tournament tally to 15, by far the most by any bowler. Having bowled the first and third overs in his initial spell, he returned in the fifteenth to then capture three wickets, including fittingly the last of the ten Bermuda lost altogether, in just eleven balls.
In between Sana’s late overs heroics, astute introductions to the attack by skipper Zafar had served to undermine Bermuda’s response at crucial points of their innings. The first of those was the choice of Harsh Thaker to bowl the second over of the innings. That proved to be decisively effective as Thaker duly deceived Bermuda’s opener Tre Manders into edging a straightforward catch to Aaron Johnson at slip, after having scored only 1 and with the team’s total on 2.
Kamau Leverock and Terryn Fray added 50 for the second wicket in a partnership which at times threatened to take the match away from the Canadians. Until Zafar intervened once more through the introduction of Nikhil Dutta’s mystery-man off spin in the tenth over.
The wily off spinner first deceived the dangerous Leverock into offering the simplest of caught and bowled chances to be gone for a run-a-ball 23, that included just one each of a six and a four. Five balls later, Dutta struck again with the equally prized wicket of Bermuda’s captain Delay Rawlins, caught by Aaron Johnson for just 1.
Zafar then got into the act himself by having the resistant Terryn Fray smartly stumped by wicket-keeper Wijeyeratne for 30. Despite Allan Douglas’ threatening 13ball 22, there was no real further resistance from Bermuda’s batting. In the face of Jeremy Gordon’s searing pace, from which he claimed 3/6-2, and Sana’s unerring seam the last six wickets fell for only 30 runs in the space of seven overs as the hosts crumbled in submission to the rampant Canadians, who joyously celebrated their amazing tournament turnaround triumph and deserved progression to next year’s ICC T20 World Cup!
Summarized Scores:
Canada 132/4-18 Ovrs. N Dhaliwal 45, N Kirton 26, H Thaker 21. D Sabir 2/34-4.
Bermuda 93/10-16,5 Ovrs. T Fray 30, K Leverock 23, A Doulas 22. K Sana3/4 -3.5, J Gordon 3.6-2, N Dutta 2/16-3.
Canada won by 39 runs.
