HAMILTON, Bermuda, CMC – A tidy all-round performance from their captain, Delray Rawlins, enabled hosts Bermuda to march to their fourth win in a row when they beat Panama by five wickets in the ICC Men’s Twenty20 World Cup Americas Region Finals on Wednesday.
Rawlins was the most successful Bermudian bowler, taking a flattering three for ten from his allotted four overs with his left-arm spin, and the Panamanians were restricted to 86 for nine from their allocation of 20 overs in the second match of a doubleheader at the National Stadium.
Batting at four, he then ushered his side over the finish line with a top score of 33 not out. He shared an unbroken 26 for the sixth wicket with Zeko Burgess, not out on 19, to formalize the win after pacer Yusuf Ebrahim grabbed three wickets in five balls and had Bermuda wobbling on 63 for five.
Rawlins pulled pacer Rahul Ahir behind square for the last of his three fours that adorned his innings along with two sixes to maintain the perfect record of the Bermudians in the four-team tournament that will qualify one team for the 2024 global showpiece being staged from June 4 to 30 in the Caribbean and the United States.
In the day’s opening match, Canada followed up strong batting led by Pargat Singh with destructive bowling and thumped the Cayman Islands by 166 runs in a one-sided contest.
Left-arm pacer Kaleem Sana was the pick of the Canadian bowlers with four for 18 from his four overs, and the Caymanians – chasing 197 to win – were bowled out for a modest 30 in 11.3 overs – tying with Thailand and Mali (twice) for the seventh lowest T20I total of all-time.
Nikhil Dutta hastened the finish with three for none from 1.3 overs, fellow off-spinner Harsh Thaker supported with two for five from his four overs, and no Caymanian batter made more than five from their Barbados-born captain Ramon Sealy.
Earlier, Singh cracked seven fours and two sixes in the top score of 82 from 60 balls and anchored Canada to 196 for five after they chose to bat.
He added 75 with opener Navneet Dhaliwal to give the innings early momentum before he was dismissed in the 17th over.
Barbados Pride left-hander Nicholas Kirton supported with 32, and Dhaliwal made 29; Conroy Wright bagged two for 38 from his four overs for Caymans.
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