By Grockle
October 3 2023

After the win by Bermuda against Canada the situation within the qualifying contest became very interesting.  There was another game between Panama and the Caymans that day which would show the relative strength of the other teams involved and then on Sunday a second combination of matches happened. Which would confirm or muddy expectations for the rest of the week. Here's how that all played out

I probably need to nail my colours to the mast before we go further.  I started an interest in Associate cricket when I found out that Oman, an arab country, was one of the best 15 short form cricket nations in the world though their population seemed pretty unaware of this. 

The idea of a 'minnows' looking to swim with the Test playing 'sharks' was interesting but the fact that the side although committed to winning for Oman were predominently migrant Asian cricketers, (admittedly some there since childhood) playing for a country that did not see their victories as significant to that country because of their perceived 'nationality' rankled with me as well as the 100-ish Omani players who found it hard to get into their own national team.

I have a Bermudan bias in this tournament because of that.  Their side is very very Bermudan, it is obvious in everything from their 'interesting' first names to their many historical last ones.  This is a national squad representing 60,000 people on a little place in the North Atlantic and they want it real bad.

With that in mind how did the rest of Day 1 confirm or refute the perceptions of the relative strengths and weaknesses of the countries involved before the start of the games?

 The second game on Day 1 was Panama v the Cayman Islands. The perceived weakest side of the four versus the 'wildcard' factor.

The game started at 2pm, in less humid conditions, at least in Bermuda terms.  Panama won the toss and chose to bat first.  Their predominently Asian sounding side had Mahmud Jasat and Mohmad Patel opening for the 'South Americans' against the bowling of Conroy Wright and Alistair Ifill.  They lost their first wicket in the third to Aleasandro Morris.  He cleaned up Patel and his replacement Gaonker in his first over.  The Panamanians found staying in AND scoring really difficult and had only reached 30 by the end of the powerplay but they had at least not lost another wicket.  The Cayman Islanders looked sharp in the field with a tall and athletic initial bowling attack

Panama were mostly swinging with gusto but missing.  Slightly desperate running between the wickets was offering run out chances while their opposition was giving most bowlers no more than an over (except Morris who got a second) before moving them about.  In 6 overs they used 5 bowlers with Troy Taylor taking the 5th and Romeo Dunka coming on for the 6th.  This is where the next man went, again clean bowled.  Yusuf Ebrahim went for 5 and it was 3 for 31.  The first of what seemed to be a whole bunch of Ahirs came and went when Ifil forced Anilkumar Ahir to sky a top edge and it is 32 for 4.

The Panama innings set into a kind of process.  A period of slow scoring with the odd boundary followed by a flurry of wickets.  Another Ahir (Jay) joined Jasat and they looked to settle the nerves a little and get the field running around a little.  For a while it looked solid without exactly setting the scoring world alight.  The two bats moved the score to 47 at the halfway stage and must have been looking at passing 50 without loss when Jasat smacked the ball straight down Wrights' throat at long off  from the bowling of Morris.  48 for 5 in the 11th heralded the arrival of a third Ahir with Rahul coming to.the crease.  He stayed until the 14th scoring 3 before being struck plumb in front by Dunka. A second Patel joined Jay Ahir and they decided to look at staying in for the duration.

They did a decent job until Taylor clean bowled Patel halfway through the 16th. Nikunj Ahir came in and the last Ahir partnership took the score to 73 before Jay was caught by Ifil off the bowling of Wright. Abdullah Jasat helped the last Ahir to bat out the innings and the Caymans would need 86 to win the game.

Panama seemed to be about 4 families of cricketing migrants from the sub continent or Middle East.  The most interesting thing about the side was the fact that their conversations were nearly all in fluent Spanish so the history of how the Patels, Ahirs and other members of Panama's Asian community took this cricketing nation here might be worth a look.  They do seem to be the weak members of this quartet.  They didn't produce too much against the Cayman Islanders but they did manage to complete 20 overs so there are questions about how well their opponents can put a side away.  The bowling looked very good in places and a little lax and 'vague' in others.

Cayman Islands came out blazing with Ramon Sealy hitting 14 with 3 fours before he went in the second over. Paul Manning was run out by Jasat at the end of the 3rd but that was the end of any chance of a real surprise.  The third wicket of Naidoo going LBW to Gaonker did not happen until the score had reached 56 in the 11th over. Patrick Heron opened and his 31 with 24 from number 5 Brian Corbin won this game in the 15th  by 7 wickets with 33 balls remaining.

The Cayman Islands looked like better opposition but there did seem, a distinct chance that unless they clicked into place against stronger opposition, that this was going to be a two horse race as Panama did not look like a side that could push either Bermuda or Canada unless one of those sides effectively imploded themselves.

Day 1 had concluded with few surprises.  Day 2 opened with a lot of rain before dawn and very dark skies over the island.  However the conditions cleared and to the credit of the groundstaff at White Hill both games took place on time.  Bermuda had what should have been the easier day against Panama in the morning while Canada took on the more problematical Cayman Islands in the afternoon.

Panama once more decided to bat first and made a better fist of it pushing the score to 32 in the 5th over before Patel was bowled by Zek Burgess.  Unfortunately then a clutch of wickets fell as in the first game.  Gaonker went 2 balls later caught by Leverock (man of the match from the first game) off the bowling of Derrick Brangman. The score was still on 32 as Jasat went first ball, run out by the ever present Leverock and it had only moved to 37 when Anilkumar Ahir was caught by Trott also off the bowling of Brangman who took 3 for 11 in his 4 during the game.  The contest was pretty much over.  Panama toiled to 68 at the end of the 15th before Bermuda struck again as Akalwaya was caught by Burgess off the bowling of Sabir.  This prompted a second collapse as Rahul Ahir went LBW to Allan Douglas 3 balls later at 69. Nikunj Ahir was Brangman's 3rd also caught by Trott. Faizan Patel was the last Panamanian to be out to a Douglas and Leverock partnership and once again Panama made it to 20 overs with a score of 90 for 8.

Bermuda lost Leverock early with 9 on the board.  They lost Fray at 30 in the 6th and Rawlins at 47 in the 9th.  But man of the match Tre Manders held the innings together with a 37 ball 55 (3 fours and 4 sixes).  He was helped over the finish line by 19 from Dominic Sabir and Bermuda won by 7 wickets in 13.5 overs.  Pretty routine to be fair.

Canada batted first in the second game and this was more of a question and challenge as the Caymans hadn't been pushed all that hard by the South Americans on Day 1.  The North Americans were smarting from a lacklustre batting performance and a defeat against the home nation so they were looking to prove something.  

Canada took off and before they lost Johnson in the 5th over they had reached 59 of which Johnson had scored 47 off 19 balls with 11 boundaries.  They then lost Singh first ball and Dhaliwal without increasing the score with the first ball of the 6th.  After this Kirston added 31 (133 for 4) with Harsh Thaker putting on 47 (143 for 5).  The last Canadian wicket was Dutta for 4 at the end of the 17th with 148 on the board and 3 overs to go.  In which Zafar and Heliger added 46 to finish on 194.  An excellent score on what had been a pretty slow pitch.  Wright with 2 for 27 was the pick of the Cayman bowlers though Morris with 3 for 45and Ifil also took scalps. 3 of their bowlers went for over 10 an over.

In reply the Cayman bats needed to get a good start and they just didn't losing Sealy for 7 at 21 to Sana, Manning at 27 (2 and a half overs later) bowled by Thaker and Naidoo two balls after that courtesy of the same Canadian wiithout adding to the score.  From there it was an uphill struggle and although Corbbin (34) and Heron (26) made runs the rest of the batting order were in single figures under some solid Canadian pressure and wickets kept tumbling without the significant partnerships developing.  The Caymans were bowled out for 86 in 17 overs with Sana taking 2 for 6, Thaker 3 for 14 and Dutta 4 for 12, Zafar took the other wicket and this was a pretty comprehenshive victory which suggested that the Cayman's were not the solid opposition they might have suggested. Harsh Thaker took the Man of the Match award with his wickets and 47 with the bat.

So 2 wins by Bermuda and no real fears being created by the performances of the Cayman Islands (their next opponents).  Canada were back in the mix with a win and a much better batting performance in their second game while Panama looked to be the 'whipping boys' of the tournament despite refusing to give up and making it to the end of both their innings in spite of not yet getting to 3 figures.

After a rest day on Monday the whole contest decamps to the National Stadium for the next 2 days.  Different venue, different wickets.  Different results? Will the Cayman Islands 'bring it' to Bermuda against the hosts?