The Bahamas falls to Canada by 122 runs

It was a tough opening match at the International Cricket Council (ICC) Men’s TwentyTwenty (T20) Americas World Cup Qualifiers for The Bahamas senior men’s national cricket team. They fell by 122 runs to Canada yesterday morning at the Sir Vivian Richards Stadium in Antigua.

The Bahamas, playing in its first ICC game since 2013, finished with 68 runs all out in 15.2 overs, while Canada finished with 190 runs for five wickets in 20 overs. Bahamas Captain Greg Taylor Jr. won the toss and was elected to field.

On the batting front, The Bahamas was led by Marc Taylor, who finished with an efficient 44 runs. Jagnauth Jagroo led the bowlers with a three-wicket haul in four overs and only allowed an economical 24 runs.

“Today, we had a fairly good start. We bowled first and we contained them for a number of overs. Unfortunately, the last six overs went for almost about 70 runs, so we let it get out of hand,” Marc Taylor said.

Canada got off to a slow start, and opening bowler, Roderick Mitchell, only gave up a single in the first over. The Bahamas got their first wicket in the third over on a Mitchell delivery that Taylor Jr. caught. It was the batsman, Hiral Patel, they wanted, who scored 11 of Canada’s 15 runs at that time.

Mitchell struck again in the fifth over with Canada on 36 runs. This time, Mitchell showed some quick reflexes when he caught Navneet Dhaliwal’s ball, himself, who he outed for one run.

It was impressive bowling and batting by The Bahamas as they held Canada to just 70 runs after 10 overs. Jagroo got his first victim in that over when he got the other remaining opening batsman Rayyankhan Pathan for 38 runs.

At the end of 16 overs, Canada had 126 runs for five wickets. The run rate was 7.88 runs per over at that point.

However, Canada went very aggressive on the bat and scored 64 runs in the remaining four overs. The Bahamas could not get a wicket in those overs.

With a 191-run target, The Bahamas had a mountain to climb as they looked to pull off the upset.

It was a good start to The Bahamas’ inning with Marc Taylor and Jagroo opening. The duo quickly raced out to 16 runs after three overs with all wickets in hand. Taylor already had one six and two fours.

In the fourth over, Jagroo connected on the ball to hit his first four of the game. That was his only four as Harsh Thaker took Jagroo for seven runs, as The Bahamas scored 24 runs for one wicket.

Marlon Graham replaced Jagroo at the crease, but Taylor and his partnership did not last long as he was out in the following over with The Bahamas at 32/2.

Those two lost wickets were crucial to The Bahamas’ chase as runs were difficult to score. At the end of the 10th over, The Bahamas only had 51 runs and needed 140 runs in 60 balls to win the game.

Three more wickets fell by the end after 12 overs, including opening batsman Taylor, who had six fours and one six for 44 runs. The score was 62 runs for the fall of five wickets.

In the end, The Bahamas lost the remaining five wickets for just six runs.

“We didn’t apply ourselves when it came down to batting,” Marc Taylor said. I opened along with Jagroo. I was able to score 44 but, you know, unfortunately, it’s one of those days where we didn’t really do that good as a team when it came to batting.

There is a quick turnaround for the squad as they put this match in the rear-view mirror and look ahead to playing Argentina at the same stadium.

“It is a quick turnaround, but it works in our favor. Our team is a mixed team but we have a lot of players that play good when it comes to momentum, so if we could keep playing, the more we play, the better we become. We are happy that we have a game the next day,” Taylor said.

The tournament wraps up on Sunday, November 14. The other teams in the tournament are Argentina, Belize, Bermuda, Panama and the United States of America.

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