By Grockle
October 5 2023

With the Tropical Storm/Cat 1 Hurricane Phillipe floating about the place, the top sides in this tournament are looking to add to their position with strong victories.  Canada take on the Caymans for the second time while Bermuda look to add to their undefeated record with a second win against Panama.  If the rain comes then the points are vital.

Day 4 of the North American Qualifier opens at Bermuda's National Stadium with the threat of rain for the day and the chances of a Tropical storm making landfall on the island before the weekend disrupting the final 2 days of the event on Friday and Saturday.  it is therefore important for the two main countries with chances of going forward from here to push their own chances with large wins today.  Canada have won 2 out of 3 games but are winning games with really significant margins.  Bermuda have not lost yet but must be aware of the significant differences in their Net Run Rate to that of Canada.  Therefore their objective has to be to simply keep winning.

The first game of the day is Canada v Cayman Islands.  Thier opponents have a need to win if they are going to put themselves in the equation and have shown some promise, especially against Bermuda yesterday.  They may have hopes of upsetting the Canadians.  

Canada chose to bat first and they open with Johnson (the hero of their last game) and Dhalilwal.  Conroy Wright and a new man Mohan Mannivannan are the Cayman new ball attack.  They are succesful in taking down Johnson in the first over as Wright has him caught heron for 3.  4 for 1 is a definite good start.  That is about it though for the first half of the game as Dhaliwal and especially the new bat Singh settle into a partnership.  They hold the Canadian bats to sedate scoring but it isn't until the 12 over when Wright acts as the catcher to his bowler Ifill to dismiss Dhaliwal for 29 at 79.  

Harsh Thaker has been a difficult bat for sides he's faced so getting rid of him would be a good thing and they manage that at 91 in the 14th for only 5.  However, Singh was taking hold of the game by then and as they send in Heyliger, a player who is their 'goto' man when they want to push the score on, they are still considering a final total of 200 ish.  They both look to push the score towards 150 before they lose Singh adjudged LBW to Wright at 136n in the 17th.  200 looks too far, but Kirton and Heyliger have been here before and with a mere 3 overs to go tgghey get on with it pushing the score over 150 and to 172 when Kirton is caught by Maidoo off the bowling of Dunka for a 15 ball 32.

172 on the board and 5 balls to go from Dunka.  Facing him is Nikhil Dutta who smacks 17 off the 4 balls he faces before Heyliger hits the last one for 6.  23 off the last part of the game and with 1 extra the final Canadian score is 196 for 5.  Fair end to the innings.

A good start is imperative to the Islanders.  They don't get it.  Sana and Gordon start their attack   Sana has Heron and Naidoo in his pocket by the end of the third over. 8 for 2.  Thaker is introduced for the 4th and he gets the dangerous Sealy for very little caught by his parallel batting opponent Johnson. 3 fo12 becomes 4 for 17 when Sana gets his third by bowling Willis.  It's 5 when Thaker does the same to corbin without an addition to the score.  

The wickets keep on falling and the Caymans continue to fail to score at any kind of rate.  Ifill is run out by Dhaliwal at 20, Dunka is caught behind at 25 off Dutta, Morris is LBW to the same bowler next ball, Wright becomes Sana's 4th LBW.  There's a 5 ball gap but no increase to the score and it is 30 before Bazil finally perishes bowled by Dutta.  An embarassing all out for 30 and a massive defeat by 166 runs.  The end of their campaign to qualify and a massive increase to Canada's NRR total.

Bermuda face a quandry - if they win the toss against Panama, do they bat first and score big in the hope of putting a large winning margin on the books ro do they put the Panamanians in and look to beat them quickly to keep the streak going?

2:30 arrives, Bermuda win the toss and they put Panama in.  Unsure what the overall plan is but the objective becomes one of clearing out the Panamanian batting line up in the minimum amount of overs possible and then passing their total in the the quickest mannere possible.  Panama have shown one strength during this competition and that is that although they do not score big, they are stubborn and insist on staying in!!

The opening attack for Bermuda has changed as Kemau Leverock is joined by Macquille Walker.  Panama open with Skipper Gaonkar and Mohamed Patel.  It's new boy Walker who takes the first in his second over as Patel si caught by Douglas for 3 12 for 1.  They've reached 45 at the end of the 10th before Rawlings gets his replacement Akalwaya caught Fray.  Brangman gets 2 more in the next over with Gaonkar caught Leverock for 23 and Bhoola caught Fray for zero.  Nikunj Ahir stays in for a while but only adds 3 before he is the next wicket in the 14th caught behind off Sabir.  His replacement Rahul Ahir makes a stand with Jasat movcing the score to 66 before he falls in the 17th caught Manders bowled Douglas. Natubhai also works with Jasat to put on a few more runs before the latter finally loses his wicket at the end of the 19th having made 14 from 22 coming up the wicket and being stumped by Smith off Douglas.  83 for 7 and it isn't over.  85 for 8 as Natubhai is caught Brangman off Rawlins and the skipper then bowls Data with the last ball after an addition of another single.  Again they survive 20 overs, again they fail to get the score over 3 figures.

Bermuda now need to get on with it and clear this score in the least overs possible.  Leverock goes in with Douglas, promoted up the order to get on with it.  Khengarbahi Ahir strikes early bowling Kemau Leverock for 4 in the first over.  Tre Manders replaces him and the pair look to score at 10 an over at least.  Manders falls during this fight at the start of the 4th with the score on 35 and 10 to his name bowled by Natubhai. 

A short rain squall interferes with the flow of the game but the worries that it might become a major issue come to nothing and the sides are back on the pitch within the hour.

Rawlins sends himself in for a captain's innings and he and Douglas continue the 10 an over strategy until Douglas goes 23 from 16 at 63 courtesy of a catch from Rahul Ahir bowled Akalwaya.

We then have a view of something that affects Bermuda innings often en ough to be worrying.  With the game won in the 7th over, 63 for 3 becomes 63 for 5 in 4 balls as Sabir comes and goes and so does Trott.  Zeko Burgess joins his skipper at the start of the 8th over and Bermuda pass the Panama score 1 ball into the 10th with Zeko not out for 19 off 8 and Rawlins with 33 off 17.  The game is won but the middle order fragility is there again and the focus needs to be very strong in the last two games, especially against the Canadians who are the strongest overall side in this tournament even though Bermuda are dealing well with the issues in front of them.  If Canada come at them full throttle on Saturday, the whole of the Bermuda eleven have to turn up to win the prize of a move forward towards the T20 World Cup.