Canada 182-5

Bermuda 186-7

A day after suffering a two-run defeat to Italy, Bermuda achieved a dramatic last-ball, three-wicket victory over Canada in their final warm-up match before tournament play begins on Friday in the ICC World Twenty/20 Qualifiers in Dubai, United Arab Emirates.

“It was a monumental win for us,” said a delighted Bermuda coach Arnold Manders after the team’s high-scoring victory over Canada which came after opener Dion Stovell laid the foundation with a 44-ball knock of 55 which included six fours and a six.

Captain Janeiro Tucker also came good with the bat with a timely innings of 42 off 20 balls in the middle order while Allan Douglas scored a valuable 29 from 16 balls to keep Bermuda on course for victory after Terryn Fray, Lionel Cann and David Hemp all failed to reach double figures.

Tucker smashed four fours and three sixes while Douglas hit a four and three sixes before departing in the 16th over with Bermuda 149 for five.

Going down into the final two overs Bermuda still needed 18 runs for victory, with Stovell dismissed on the first ball of the 18th over.

Some 16 runs were still needed in the final over, which saw Malachi Jones depart on the first ball before Kwame Tucker hit a six next ball and then a single. Kamau Leverock followed up with a six off his only scoring stroke before victory was achieved with four byes off the last ball. Tucker finished 10 not out and Leverock six not out.

“Allan Douglas swung the match in our favour because we required 12 runs an over and he and Dion got 20 in one over,” Manders explained. “They showed a lot of character and all the things we have been trying to tell them finally came to fruition. It’s coming, Canada beat Afghanistan yesterday and we beat Canada today.

“I believe we can qualify, the players just need to follow the right processes. The team that makes the fewer mistakes will win. We’re at a different level and trying to be consistent is the problem.”

Earlier, Bermuda’s bowlers were put to the sword as Canada scored at a rate of 9.10 runs an over. Opener Hiral Patel scored 64 while captain Ashish Bagel, batting at number three, contributed 47 as the pair added 77 for the second wicket. Fellow opener Ruvindu Gunasekera had been dismissed after scoring 28 of the first 31 runs with six fours.

Kamau Leverock, who shared the new ball with spinner Derrick Brangman, claimed two for 43 from his four overs while Jones, the sixth bowler used, returned two for 28 from three overs. Brangman, Stovell and Jacobi Robinson all had an economy rate of seven runs an over. Jones went for 9.33 an over, Leverock 10.75 and Janeiro Tucker 12 as he claimed one for 24 from two overs.

“When was the last time we beat Canada, probably 2005, 2006?” Manders asked. “It was a good win for us and hopefully it gave the players some confidence going into the tournament. We lost a tight one yesterday that we shouldn’t have lost.

‘I didn’t want their heads to drop because they played extremely well, except for the last five overs. In the last five overs we leaked more runs than we should have and in the batting we were cruising at six an over and let it jump up to 10 and 12 and couldn’t finish it off.”

Added Manders: “We didn’t bowl as well as we did yesterday but we did bat a lot better.”

After the victory the Bermuda team boarded their bus back to their hotel before heading out to watch the first T20 match between Pakistan and South Africa at Dubai International Cricket Stadium, a match South Africa won by nine wickets.

In other World T20 Qualifying warm-up matches yesterday, Papua New Guinea (161-8) beat Ireland (143-7) by 18 runs; USA (130-5) beat Nepal (129-7) by five wickets; Afghanistan (78-4) beat Uganda (76-9) by six wickets; Kenya (103-7) beat Hong Kong (99) by three wickets; Netherlands (147-4) beat Italy (145-7) by six wickets; Scotland (119-1) beat Namibia (116-6) by nine wickets and UAE (91-4) beat Denmark (90-7) by six wickets.