KING CITY, Ont. (CP) _ Canada easily achieved a target of 58 runs in its second innings on Tuesday to defeat Bermuda by nine wickets on the fourth and final day of its ICC Intercontinental Cup match.
Bermuda made a total of 644 runs over two innings, while Canada recorded 588 in its first innings. The Canadians needed only 58 runs in its second innings to win the match.
Canada did just that in a maximum of 16 overs with Geoff Barnett scoring 25 runs not out and losing only one wicket in the chase for runs.
Left-arm pace bowler Umar Bhatti led Canada's bowlers taking six wickets for 104 runs in Bermuda's second innings that enabled Bermuda to take only a slender lead that Canada was able to overcome.
Bhatti finished with 10 wickets in the match, a repeat of his success two week ago in an Intercontinental Cup match with Kenya. He also scored 50 runs in the Canadian first innings to give Canada a big first innings lead on Monday.
Henry Osinde, Bhatti's bowling partner, took three wickets for 58 runs and six wickets overall for the match.
The morning session opened with Bermuda losing only one wicket. Bermuda's batting partnership of captain Irving Romaine and Clay Smith took the total to 135 runs for two wickets by lunch.
After lunch, the pair continued its strong batting hitting a number of good strokes, but Bhatti made a breakthrough with the score on 186.
Romaine tried to hook the ball and was caught on the boundary by substitute fielder Naresh Patel. Romaine finished with 65 runs.
The partnership of Lionel Cann and Clay Smith then took over and struck a number of blows that gave Bermuda the lead after tea.
By the time the duo were out, Bermuda had amassed 291 runs for eight wickets. Bermuda overall finished its second innings with a total of 310 runs.
Canada then began its comeback.
With the victory, Canada heads its qualifying group with a maximum 40 points from two matches and has a good chance of qualifying for the Intercontinental Cup final. Canada's final group match is against Netherlands in South Africa in December.
