A new year, a new captain, a new coach and a new and vitally important tournament- but the results continue to be poor. Canada were outplayed by Hong Kong in their second match of the World Cup qualifier, losing by 9 wickets with Hong Kong needing just 25 overs to pass Canada’s meagre total of 171.
Canada batted first and after a good start, with Kumar (28) and Gunasekera putting on 41 in an opening stand, two quick wickets had them at 41/2 after 12 overs. Hansra was run out for 8, and with half their overs gone, Canada were 93/3. Bastiampillai made 29, Raza-ur-Rehman (28) and Hamza Tariq (23) also contributed but wickets fell steadily, and Canada failed to bat out their overs.
Jeremy Gordon struck in his first over bowling Mark Wright, but that was Canada’s only success as Irfan Ahmed completed an unbeaten 85 ball century, with Atkinson contributing 63.
The standings in Group A of the ICC World Cup Qualifier have what has became a similar and far too familiar look in the last three years for Canada’s senior men’s team. The nine wicket hammering left Canada sinking under not just the burden of two losses, but with a major deficit on Net Run Rate. Canada’s next game is on Tuesday (Jan 21) against Nepal, but before then Scotland plays the UAE and Hong Kong takes on Nepal on Sunday. Should Scotland spark to life and beat the UAE there would be a bit of a gap for Canada to make up. The Net Run Rate (Net RR) needs a major boost for Canada that must come through big wins against Nepal and then Scotland (Jan 23) in order for the target of at least a SuperSix place to remain alive.
CricInfo scorecard