Bermuda 206-8

Canada 207-7

Canada overcame a late fightback at the Antigua Recreation Ground yesterday to secure a three-wicket win over Bermuda and place themselves in a winner-takes-all situation in the final of the triangular series at the same venue tomorrow against Test team Bangladesh.

Set a target of 207 for victory, the Canadians were cruising along at 101 for the loss of two wickets at a comfortable 4.8 runs per over in reply to Bermuda’s total.

But Bermuda’s spin attack — led by 22-year-old all-rounder Delyone Borden, who claimed four wickets for 30 runs — nearly stole the show after the Island’s seamers had failed to make the necessary inroads on a tame pitch.

Through a disappointing sequence of mis-fields, dropped catches and missed run outs, the Canadians were ultimately let off the hook. And despite losing late wickets, the North Americans were still able to record a fourth straight ODI victory over Gus Logie’s men.

Working in tandem, Borden and Dwayne Leverock bowled an unsettling line to peg down the Canadian batsmen and make them work hard for their runs. Borden triggered Canada’s middle order slide to revive local hopes when he trapped top scorer Abdul Samad (83) leg before with the fourth ball of his second spell in the 26th over.

Leg spinner Leverock then made further inroads by silencing the big bat of Canadian skipper John Davison — holder of the record for the fastest century in World Cup history — who was smartly caught at mid-on by a stationary David Hemp.

Borden then picked up two more key wickets in Ian Billcliff (48) and Sunil Dhaniram (one) to keep the match interestingly poised with the overs running out.

But in the end Bermuda’s insufficient total and a plethora of missed opportunities in the field came back to haunt them as Canada secured victory at 4.37 p.m. with three wickets in hand and 36 balls to spare.

Right handed opening bat Samad spearheaded Canada’s reply under cloudy skies, helping himself to nine fours and a solitary six off 86 balls before Borden claimed his prized wicket.

Samad and number four bat Billcliff added 82 runs for the third wicket in 14 overs before Canada slumped from 135 for three to 179 for six in the space of 66 balls.

Once Samad departed, Billcliff took up the task of carrying his team’s hopes, banging four fours and a six during a responsible 65-ball knock. But an excellent grab by Leverock just backward of square brought Billcliff’s innings to a screeching halt, and left the match hanging in the balance.

Number six bat Ashif Mulla (31) battled bravely to keep the Canadians on course. But he too would fall as Lionel Cann took a high catch at mid on off the bowling of Borden. The St.David’s’ Islander also accounted for the wicket of Dhaniram, moving instinctively to his right to take a sharp return catch off his own bowling.

Yet in the end Bermuda left it all a little too late as Canadian tailenders George Coddrington (nine not out) and Umar Bhatti (one), who had earlier done the damage with the ball to restrict Bermuda under 220 for the second straight day, produced an unbroken 24-run eighth-wicket stand that carried his side to victory.

Borden finished with excellent figures of four for 30 off nine overs and Leverock one for 45 off ten overs with two maidens.

Seamers Saleem Mukuddem (one for 35) and Kevin Hurdle (one for 48 off ten unchanged overs) managed to beat the bat on a few occasions, but again lacked the necessary penetration on a benign pitch favouring the batsmen.

After winning the toss and electing to bat, Bermuda got off to a flyer with an aggressive Dean Minors (19) banging Canadian opening bowler Bhatti, who led his team’s attack with the first four-wicket haul of the series, for successive fours in the third over on the first power play of the innings.

But once Minors departed in the seventh over, caught at second slip off the same bowler, Bermuda quickly slumped to 50 for four inside 14 overs with the big bats of David Hemp (eight), OJ Pitcher (14) and Kwame Tucker (one) all back in the pavilion.

For the second straight day, Bermuda’s frontline batsmen struggled against some disciplined bowling and failed to rotate the strike by capitalising on the singles that were there for the taking.

The returning Tucker, in for Clay Smith, was undone by an exceptional one-handed catch at point by the acrobatic Geoff Barnett off Bhatti before he shifted out of first gear. And before the dust had settled, Hemp was making the long stroll back to the pavilion after being bowled by right arm off spinner Davison, attempting to cut the ball on the offside.

Having watched wickets tumble all around him, Pitcher’s promising innings was cut short in its infancy when he drove the ball right into the hands of Bhatti fielding at extra cover.

The 2006 Cup Match MVP, painfully struck in the groin area by an Anderson Cummings delivery in the ninth over, faced 57 balls and had one boundary during a his 85-minute stay at the crease.

That early collapse put Bermuda on the defensive and the responsibility heavily upon the team’s lower order to deliver, and the Canadians in the driver’s seat.

But slowly middle order bats Irving Romaine (26) and Saleem Mukuddem (30) purposefully set about repairing the damage. The pair batted sensibly during a 57—run fifth-wicket stand in 18 overs that carried Bermuda past the century mark, Romaine doing the honours with a powerful six off left arm off spinner Kevin Sandher over long on.

Sandher, however, would have the final say two balls later when Romaine caught a delivery on the toe of the bat and skied a catch to Davison at mid off. The Bermuda skipper hit two fours off 65 balls.

Mukuddem (30) and number seven bat Lionel Cann (42) threatened to carry on in the same vein, adding 15 runs for the sixth wicket before the former got a faint edge and was gloved behind by World Cricket League MVP Asish Bagai.

South African—born Mukuddem hit two boundaries off 66 balls during his knock of 30 that laid the foundation for Bermuda’s late revival with the bat.

Mukuddem’s dismissal signalled the beginning of a spectacular fireworks display that saw the mercurial Cann smash two powerful sixes off Sandher over the midwicket boundary in the 44th over and then dispatch the same bowler two overs later into the upper deck of the Andy Roberts stand at the former Test venue.

But with a deserved half-century beckoning, Cann fell victim to some cheeky wicketkeeping on the part of Bagai who stumped the unsuspecting batsman as he wandered just outside of his crease after surviving a loud appeal for leg before.

The fiery Cann cracked five sixes off 21 balls for a top knock of 42 and shared in a 38-run seventh-wicket partnership in five overs with St.David’s’ team-mate Delyone Borden (16 not out).

It was a timely and much needed innings that put Bermuda back on course to post a sporting total for their bowlers to try and defend.

Having let their Americas rivals off the hook, Canada’s frustrations were prolonged in the field as tailender Kevin Hurdle plundered 22 runs off ten deliveries, including a beautifully timed six just backward of the square leg boundary.

But just when it looked as though Bermuda’s lower order was running away with the match, Bhatti picked up his fourth victim with the very first delivery of his second spell in the penultimate over of the innings from the pavilion end.

Hurdle whipped three sixes and added a brisk 24 runs for the eighth wicket with Borden before youngster Malachi Jones (seven not out) and the latter put up the shutters and batted out the final over.

Pakistan-born left arm pacer Bhatti impressed with top figures of four for 45 off ten overs with two maidens, while off spinner Davison, Sandher, George Coddrington and Sunil Dhaniram claimed one wicket each.