Bermuda edge to narrow T20 win over Argentina
Bermuda, 99 for seven, beat Argentina, 93 for eight.Lionel Cann hit an unbeaten half century as Bermuda squeezed to a narrow three-wicket win over Argentina in Florida this afternoon.Cann scored 55 off 42 balls, which included the six that took his team to victory with just three balls to spare.The St David's batsman was the only Bermuda player to reach double-figures in a low scoring game that David Moore's team made harder than it should have been.“It's super to get the game out of the way, and it's always great to get a win under the belt first up,” said Moore. “It's not good from a coaches perspective, but it shows that you're going ok when you play badly and still get a win.”Chasing 94 to win, Bermuda slumped to 22 for three, with David Hemp (two), Fiqre Crockwell (five) and Kamau Leverock (four) all departing cheaply.Crockwell once again managed to run himself out when batting for Bermuda, and his departure saw the rest of the team revert to type as the singles dried up.“Some of the things that we have been working on for so long, we went back to default mode unfortunately and that was that,” said Moore.“Fiqre hammered the ball to mid-on, there was a yes/no miss-field, and that was that. The issue was that we've pushing for those sort of runs in practice…but then what also happened was that they (the rest of the team) started balking at runs.”Argentina skipper Esteban MacDermott led his side's bowling attack, taking three wickets for just nine runs, and when Rodney Trott became his third victim, Bermuda were wobbling at 65 for six.In the end it fell to Cann to see his team home, which he did in the final over, spanking spinner Donald Forrester for two sixes back down the ground.Moore praised Cann's ‘measured innings' that saw the opener keep his head as wickets fell at the other end.Bermuda's batting was in stark contrast to a bowling performance that saw Malachi Jones produced the kind of devastating opening spell he is capable of, but has rarely produced in recent years.Jones took three wickets for 10 runs in his four overs, and also ran out Gary Savage, who led the Argentina batting with 38 from 46 balls.“Jones bowled beautifully, swung the ball away from the batsman and made them play and miss,” said Moore. “He got two wickets from very fast bouncers, and he was quality, and then he came out and executed a world class run-out.“He played like the Malachi we know can play, which was great. He was really switched on, and that's the thing about Mally, he looks world class when he's switched on.”The only blot on an otherwise sterling bowling effort, which also saw George O'Brien pick up two wickets was the 13 wides Bermuda conceded.“I thought our bowling was very good,” said Moore, “except the situation where we bowled 13. In the first ten overs they had 38 runs, and 12 wides.“All in all I thought our out-fielding was very good, our catching was very good, and that sort of stuff, and then the problem was that when it came to the batting we let Argentina well back into the game.”\Bermuda are taking part in the ICC Americas Division 1 Twenty20 tournament.