The Bahamas loses final two games of world cup qualifiers

It was not the ending that The Bahamas senior men’s national cricket team wanted to their International Cricket Council (ICC) Men’s TwentyTwenty (T20) Americas World Cup Qualifiers campaign, nevertheless, they return in high spirits. The Bahamas lost the final two games, against the United States of America (USA) and Panama, in a double-header at the Coolidge Cricket Ground in Antigua & Barbuda on Saturday.

In the first game of the day, The Bahamas lost by 10 wickets to the USA, who was able to easily meet the 91-run target set by The Bahamas. The American squad scored that in the 13th over without losing a wicket. The Bahamas then lost to Panama by 26 runs after scoring 113 runs all out. Panama finished with 139 runs for the fall of eight wickets.

In the game against Panama, the winning squad won the toss and chose to bat first. They got out to a quick start, scoring six runs in the first over. The Bahamas’ Marlon Graham bowled the second over and took the first Panamanian wicket when he bowled Mohmad Sohel for seven runs. At the end of the second over, Panama tallied 14 runs for the loss of one wicket.

Roderick Mitchell bowled a maiden over in the third over along with a wicket in the final ball.

After 10 overs, Panama only had 49 runs for three wickets. The Bahamas needed to keep the bowling tight and keep Panama’s run rate down. The next two overs didn’t help as those overs conceded 10 runs each to put Panama’s total at 69 runs for three wickets. Panama reached the century mark in the 17th over, where they had 108 runs for five wickets. The Panamanian side scored 31 runs in the final three overs to bring them to the final total of 139 runs.

Greg Taylor Jr., The Bahamas’ captain, finished his bowling with two wickets and 24 runs in three overs.

The Bahamas had a good start as Taylor Jr. and Marc Taylor opened the batting. The brothers had The Bahamas on 17 runs without losing a wicket after two overs. It was a huge loss for The Bahamas in the third over when Taylor, their leading scorer, was out for six runs.

Taylor Jr. and Jonathan Barry were at the crease, picked up the run rate and put on a 28-run partnership. It took The Bahamas to 46 runs at the end of the fifth over with nine wickets in hand. They had a 9.20 run rate which was well above the required run rate of 6.27 runs.

By the end of the 10th over, the run rate slowed down and three more wickets fell. The Bahamas scored 74 runs for four wickets. They needed 66 runs from 60 balls.

With the top order batsmen out, The Bahamas’ batting began to struggle as they raced toward the 140 runs target. At the end of the 17th over, The Bahamas tallied 105 runs for seven wickets. They needed 35 runs from 24 balls.

The pressure began to build up when they needed 29 runs from 18 balls with two wickets in hand. The runs were achievable but there were not enough wickets. The ninth wicket was lost in the 18th over when Everette Haven was bowled by Bham Jasat with no runs. At the end of the 18th over, The Bahamas had 113 runs for nine wickets. The innings came to an end on the third ball of the 18th over when the final batsman Sandeep Goud was out.

Barry led the team with 22 runs in that game.

In the game against the USA, The Bahamas had a difficult time scoring runs. The Taylor 

brothers struggled in that morning game as The Bahamas scored a total of 18 runs after seven overs. Taylor was out the following over as Barry joined Taylor Jr. at the crease.

The duo tried to get some runs flowing but the USA squad put up a great defensive effort holding The Bahamas to just 39 runs after 12 overs. Taylor Jr. was out in the next over. Kervon Hinds replaced Taylor Jr.

Barry and Hinds were able to score the highest partnership for The Bahamas’ side with 25 runs. The partnership ended when Hinds was out for a team-high 23 runs in the 17th over with The Bahamas scoring 64 runs for three wickets. Another wicket fell with the next delivery as Jagnaugth Jagroo was run out.

The wickets started to fall from there as Team Bahamas had 81 for seven wickets at the end of 19 overs. They were able to score nine runs in the 20th over to push the total to 90 runs for seven wickets as the innings ended.

It was a tough batting innings for The Bahamas’ side, setting a 91-run target for the USA, the only undefeated team in the tournament.

The Americans scored 18 runs after the first two overs. They never looked back en route to scoring 53 runs after seven overs with all their wickets intact. That total went up to 87 runs after 11 overs. They cruised to 91 runs after the first ball of the 13th over.

The Bahamas finished with a 2-4 win/loss record, losing their final two matches. It was the first time since early 2020 that most of the players played competitive cricket. The team finished tied for fifth with Argentina. Although the team came in as the lowest ranked team, there were bright spots during the tournament.

Taylor was one of the top batsmen in the tournament with 187 runs to finish with the sixth most in the tournament. He was tied for second for the most sixes with 12. He is one of four batsmen who had two 50-run efforts. Hinds finished 16th with 114 runs. Taylor Jr. led The Bahamas with six wickets in the tournament to finish 16th overall. Hinds, Jagroo and Mitchell were right behind him with five wickets each.

Also playing in the tournament were Belize, Argentina, Canada and Bermuda. The Bahamian side defeated Argentina and Belize.

The week-long tournament wrapped up yesterday.

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