ICC Intercontinental Cup and Shield

CANADA v BERMUDA Canada, strengthened by the availability of Ian Billcliff and Geoff Barnett, looked the stronger of the two sides on paper, despite the loss of Umar Bhatti through a shoulder injury; Bermuda were without David Hemp. Canada began superbly with Henry Osinde trapping Chris Foggo leg-before with the third ball of the match and, in the next over, Eion Katchay, Umar Bhatti’s replacement, accounted for Oronde Bascombe in the same way. Both James Celestine and Steven Outerbridge had lucky escapes early on, Outerbridge top-edging a ball between the fieldsmen on the leg side and Celestine coming down on a ball extremely late just before it would have hit the stumps. With these alarms over, the pair raised the score to 78 before Celestine, attempting to reach his half-century by carting Sunil Dhaniram through midwicket, missed and was leg-before. Outerbridge and Irving Romaine saw Bermuda reach lunch on 112/3 by which time Canada had bowled 35 overs in two hours, an impressive over rate by modern standards. The afternoon saw Outerbridge anchor the middle order as Romaine, Rodney Trott and Jekon Edness all showed promise but got themselves out earlier than expected. Romaine was undone by Osinde who bowled him two off-cutters coming into the body, followed by a wider ball outside the off stump which Romaine tried to drive, thick-edged and was well caught by Trevin Bastiampillai. Outerbridge eventually fell to a brilliant catch by Billcliff, who leapt high into the air and held on to a well-hit cover drive with his left hand. Canada proceeded to take three quick wickets after tea to put themselves in a strong position but were partially frustrated by a last-wicket stand of 21. Nevertheless to dismiss Bermuda for 237 was a good performance, particularly by Dhaniram who bowled straight through the afternoon and evening sessions, a spell of 25.4 overs, and deserved his four-wicket haul. Canada batted out seven overs without incident to end the day. The Canadian openers took the score to 35 before Abdool Samad was superbly caught, low and left-handed, by Foggo at short square leg. The appearance of left-arm spinner, Dwayne Leverock, produced two more wickets for Bermuda, including another excellent catch by Foggo, before lunch which Canada reached on 121 for three. Their total owed much to Arvind Kandappah who, unlike his colleagues, decided to attack Leverock. By the interval he had hit 43 runs off 29 balls, including a straight six over the sightscreen. In the afternoon session, Kandappah reached his half-century off 38 balls but was then forced to retire with a back injury. The remaining batsmen tried playing the spin of Leverock and Trott with caution but were unsuccessful. As he began to run out of partners, Billcliff upped his scoring rate, striking sixes over long on before skying a ball to George O’Brien at extra cover. With ten runs still needed for first-innings lead, Kandappah returned but, before he could face a ball, Osinde gave a return catch to Trott. Leverock and Trott, with five and three wickets respectively, were certainly the equal of Canada’s attack on a pitch which increasingly favoured spin. Bermuda’s ground fielding was also excellent. Foggo and Bascombe opened Bermuda’s second innings with a partnership of 40 but, as soon as spin replaced pace, the visitors were quickly reduced to 62 for four after 18.3 overs. Dhaniram bowled his first four overs without conceding a run, taking two wickets. His figures at the close were 9-5-9-2. With Trott losing his middle stump in the last over of the day, Bermuda were perilously placed on 78 for five. Bermuda set out to bat as long as possible on the third day and were doing extremely well when Dhaniram and Edness lasted the morning session, adding 74 runs. With a spin attack and few runs scored, Canada bowled 43 overs in the two hours, Dhaniram delivering 46 consecutive balls without conceding a run, including seven maiden overs. Edness was caught at cover after the interval but Leverock then partnered Romaine to add 65 for the seventh wicket. Romaine fell eventually, caught by Billcliff, chasing a wide delivery from Saad bin Zafar. He batted for four hours 55 minutes, his 84 runs coming at a strike rate of 30.4. Although the tail went quickly, Dhaniram finishing it off with two wickets in two balls, Bermuda had lasted until just after tea and scored sufficient runs to set Canada a target of 258, higher than anything achieved in the match so far. With O’Brien unable to bowl because of an ankle injury, Stefan Kelly took the new ball to great effect, taking the first two wickets to fall in the first six overs. Leverock took two further wickets to leave Canada on 32-4. Billcliff and Dhaniram batted cautiously for nearly an hour on the last morning, but a meagre 23 runs was all that was added before Billcliff was leg-before to Leverock, a decision by Roger Dill that the Canadians considered controversial. Dhaniram fell to another good bat-pad catch by Foggo as Leverock extracted considerable turn from the pitch and bowled with five fielders round the bat. Canada’s remaining batsmen had no answer and, with Rodney Trott providing spin at the other end, Bermuda won quite comfortably by 106 runs. Dwayne Leverock was the Man of the Match for his ten wickets for 129 runs. 152 ICC Intercontinental Cup 2007-08