Canada’s strong performance at the world T20 qualifiers continued as they easily beat a Bermuda side that the previous day had only just failed to beat the Dutch. A hard hitting 83 from Gunasekera led Canada to 175/6, and they bowled out Bermuda for just 103.
Gunasekera went on to the attack immediately, striking boundaries to all quarters of the field. The fifty went up in the 4th over and he and Patel put on 62 for the first wicket. Cheema’s dismal batting form continued as he made just 2, and some good bowling from Bermuda restricted Canada to 72/2 in the first half of their innings. Kumar also failed, but Gunasekera progressed to his fifty from 33 balls. Gordon provided useful support and the 17th over yielded 23 runs, as both batsmen struck sixes. Gunasekera was eventually caught for 83 from48 balls, with 10 fours and 2 sixes. Gordon made an excellent 39 from just 16 balls, and Canada made 175/6 from their twenty overs.
Osinde had Stovell dropped by Bhatti behind the sumps from his third ball, but Bhatti redeemed himself 2 balls later and Canada again had an early breakthrough. The dangerous Lionel Cann looked in ominous form as he smashed four boundaries from Osinde’s third over, and reached 33 from 21 balls before he was run out. Cheema showed that he was an assett to the team even when his batting wasn’t contributing by ripping out the heart of the Bermudan batting with a four over spell that yielded four wickets for just 16 runs, and Bermuda fell far behind the run-rate. Aulakh took 2 wickets and Bermuda were all out in their final over for 103.
Canada now have a rest day before their critical match against the powerful Afghans so far unbeaten. Canada are now in second place in Group A, ahead of the Netherlands on net run rate.