ICC Intercontinental Cup and Shield

BERMUDA v CAYMAN ISLANDS The Cayman Islands began most promisingly. After winning the toss, Steve Gordon and Ainsley Hall gave the innings a solid start with a partnership of 62. Keneil Irving looked equally untroubled but, with the score on 77, Gordon was forced to retire hurt. Nevertheless the century was reached without incident and although Irving fell to a slip catch by Janeiro Tucker off Dwayne Leverock at 109, Pearson Best and Franklyn Hinds kept the momentum going. The situation changed, however, when Leverock started to extract some turn from the pitch. The Cayman batsmen, unused to top-class spin bowling, became bemused and 141 for two suddenly became 144 for five. Gordon returned at the fall of the fourth wicket but added only 12 more runs to his score before Hassan Durham bowled him. Ryan Bovell struck two sixes in an attempt to revive the innings but received no support as the rest of side collapsed, either side of a 29-minute stoppage for rain at the end of the 64th over, to the combined spin of Leverock and Durham. Leverock’s fine performance was rewarded with a return of five wickets for 56 runs from 27 overs, ten of which were maidens. Durham gave good support with three wickets in 22 overs. Three of Leverock’s wickets fell to catches by Tucker who was impressive in the slip cordon. Bermuda’s innings lasted only three overs before rain again stopped play, this time for the day. Play started half-an-hour early on the second day to make up for the time lost on day one and, again, the Caymans had a promising start, taking the first three Bermudan wickets for 56 runs. It was not to last, however, as Irving Romaine and Clay Smith gained increasing dominance. Completely untroubled by anything that the Cayman bowlers could offer, they took the score to 209 before Romaine retired hurt, having just reached his century. Although Tucker fell quickly, there was no let-up in Bermuda’s demolition of the bowling which, apart from some off spin from Ronald Ebanks, lacked variety, being all medium-pace. Dean Minors showed no mercy, scoring at a strike rate of 104.2. Smith became the fifth wicket to go down after batting for over four and three-quarter hours for 138 runs at a strike rate of an impressive 74.1. Romaine resumed his innings at this point and scored a further 11 before he became a third victim for Troy Taylor; his 111 was made in just under four hours with a strike rate of 71.6. Minors was dismissed two runs later for an extremely entertaining 74, which included five fours and five sixes, Taylor picking up his fourth wicket to make him the most successful of the bowling attack which was dispatched all round the ground for 4.34 runs per over. Smith decided at this point to declare, leaving the Caymans a period of 45 minutes’ batting at the end of the day. Whether the Caymans were totally demoralised or simply naive in tactics is not clear but they succumbed all too easily. Instead of consolidating and batting out the day, they attempted to emulate Bermuda’s strike rate. The combination of poor shot selection and superior Bermudan bowling meant they lost four wickets to be precariously placed 140 runs behind. It took just over an hour on the third morning for Bermuda to take the remaining wickets. Leverock was now making the ball turn quite sharply and the Cayman batsmen found him unplayable. His return of six wickets for 16 gave him a match aggregate of 11 for 72. Minors gave an impressive display behind the stumps with two extremely sharp stumpings to add to the two catches on the previous evening before injury forced him to hand the gloves to Chris Foggo. Despite the dominance of Dwayne Leverock over the Cayman batsmen, the Man-of-the-Match award went to Clay Smith. It was his century that turned the match to Bermuda’s favour from the point at which it was still evenly poised. Bermuda were now virtually certain to win the America Group and qualify for the semi-finals, a remarkable turn-around on their performance in the previous year. 70 ICC Intercontinental Cup 2005