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By Peter Della Penna in Winnipeg, Manitoba

Scorecard powered by New Inning Foundation

Alex Dore’s 51 at the top of the Bermuda innings helped his side post a comfortable target to defend in a 20-run win over Canada on Friday in the 2011 ICC Americas U-15 Northern Division Tournament at Assiniboine Park in Winnipeg, Manitoba. Dore was named Man of the Match for his knock which included eight boundaries. The win created a three-way tie between Bermuda, Canada and USA at 2-2. USA was named tournament champions based on a superior net run rate with Canada finishing second and Bermuda third.

Bermuda won the toss and elected to bat first on a sunny and windy morning in Winnipeg. Dore and Keishun Smith put Bermuda on the path to victory by producing the best opening partnership of the tournament, 53 runs in 7.5 overs. They were aided in large part by a costly first over bowled by Canada U-15 captain Prushoth Senathirajah, who conceded 15 extras and 22 runs by the time six legitimate balls were bowled. Smith finally left for 11 when he chased a wide delivery from Abrash Khan and edged behind to wicketkeeper Sarbjot Singh.

Dore built another half-century stand with Delray Rawlins for the second wicket and in the process reached his half-century off 66 balls, but he departed one ball later after trying to cut off-spinner Gayan Ferdinands and gave a simple edge to Singh. The keeper took his third catch and brought Ferdinands his second wicket when Rawlins tried to play the same shot to a quicker delivery to go for 17 and the score became 121 for 3 after 20.

Bermuda had looked set to post a score well in excess of 200, but went through a rapid decline thanks to the continued efforts of Canada’s spin attack. Leg-spinner Manula Adihetly got into the act in the next over when he bowled Bermuda U-15 captain Antonio Darrell through the gate for a duck to make it 124 for 4. Ferdinands then took his third when he had Joshua Commissiong caught at point for 16. Two balls later, Adihetly had Janhoi Bean-Wilson caught for 6 at long on as Bermuda started to crumble at 138 for 6. Ferdinands made it 139 for 7 in the next over when Detre Bell left without scoring as he tried to punch off the back foot to another quicker ball and gave Singh his fourth catch.

For the second time in the week, a controversy involving Bermuda sprung up when Micah Perozzi was given out obstructing the field on the second ball of the 28th over to make it 147 for 8. Perozzi defended a full delivery from Ferdinands toward silly point. While the ball was still bouncing, Singh came out from behind the stumps to pick it up, but as he leaned down to field Perozzi kicked the ball away from him. The ball was not bouncing toward the stumps so the action taken by Perozzi was not done in defense of his wicket. Singh then asked the umpires, “Howzat?” Both umpires entered into a discussion and asked Senathirajah if he wanted to withdraw Canada’s appeal. Singh then appealed again and with no objection coming from Senathirajah, Perozzi was given out. Perozzi began gesturing at both umpires while a member of the Bermuda management ran out onto the field to protest but the umpires stayed with the decision.

Joshua Gibbons-Wade was the ninth wicket to fall with the score on 155 when he edged Adihetly to Senathirajah at slip for 10. The last wicket pair of Khalif Williams and Joshua Liyanage added 19, the most outside of the first two partnerships, before Williams was caught slogging at deep midwicket for 14 off the bowling of left-arm spinner Kurt Ramdath and Bermuda was bowled out for 174 in 33.5 overs.

Bermuda came out to field with very aggressive body language and didn’t hold back from sledging. Tensions were on the rise after the Perozzi dismissal and on the first ball of the chase, Gibbons-Wade delivered a neck high full toss at Harsh Thakar. In the next over, the keeper Bean-Wilson gave a shoulder barge into Thakar while fielding a throw. The umpires once again drew the ire of the Bermuda management staff off the field when they approached Darrell to have a word about controlling his players increasingly poor behavior, which was evident all week long.

The opening stand ended at 31 when Ramdath was caught for 13 slogging the left-arm spin of Rawlins to Perozzi at long on. Things got even uglier after Perozzi completed the catch when he started a celebration which involved him turning to the Canada bench to start shooting an imaginary machine gun while yelling out, “Pop! Pop! Pop! Pop! Pop!” The Bermuda team then went to the boundary edge to welcome the new batsman Bradley Dickson, with all 11 fielders surrounding him and chatting to him all the way to the crease which prompted one of the Canada management members to yell out, “Stay away from my batsman!”

Canada’s chase failed to regain momentum as Bermuda took wickets at regular intervals from there. Dickson was caught down the leg side for 9 trying to guide a short delivery from Rawlins past the keeper to make it 49 for 2. Four balls later, Senathirajah was out for a duck when he hit a full toss from Rawlins to Darrell at mid off. Williams came on and removed Thakar for 17 when he drove the off-spinner low to Dore at short cover to make it 57 for 4.

In a week that saw one batsman timed out and another dismissed obstructing the field, it was only fitting that Ferdinands was out hit wicket for 8 when he swung too hard at a leg side wide from Perozzi only to miss the ball and have his bat hit the stumps on the follow through to make it 72 for 5. Khan made 18 to overtake USA’s Vibhav Altekar as the tournament’s leading scorer, but fell to Perozzi when he hit a full toss to midwicket as Canada’s best partnership came to an end at 33 to make it 105 for 6 in the 26th.

Amrinder Atwal was the next to go for 1 when he tried to flick Williams through midwicket but instead sent a leading edge back to the bowler to make it 106 for 7. Miraj Patel fought valiantly with Adihetly to produce a 30-run stand for the eighth wicket as the two gave Canada a glimmer of hope at winning the match and taking the tournament title. Patel top scored for Canada with 41 and finished as their second highest scorer on the week behind Khan, but after hitting seven boundaries he was finally bowled by a slower ball from Gibbons-Wade after going through with a pull shot too early.

Canada still needed 39 runs to win with only two wickets left in hand. Darrell brought himself on and had Adihetly caught behind swishing at a good length ball for 11 to make it 152 for 9 in the 36th as Canada needed 23 to win in 26 balls. The USA team was now present at the field in advance of the tournament awards presentation and cheering for Bermuda to win, which would produce a three-way tie and give USA the tourney title on the net run rate tiebreaker. Perozzi obliged by removing Neil Ramdath for 3, caught behind for Bean-Wilson’s third catch to end the match as Canada was bowled out for 154 in 36.4 overs.

Image (above) - The tournament champion USA U-15 squad. [Courtesy: Peter Della Penna/DreamCricket.com]

At the tournament awards presentation, Canada took home three of the awards and USA one while Bermuda’s players received none of the individual honors. Sarbjot Singh was named Best Wicketkeeper after completing 11 dismissals behind the stumps, five more than the next best keeper. Abrash Khan was named Best Batsman after scoring 142 runs in four innings including a top score of 77 vs. Bermuda. Gayan Ferdinands was named Best Bowler after taking 12 wickets on the week at an average of 9.67. His best performance was 5 for 36 against USA and he also had a 3.63 economy rate.

USA U-15 captain Dave Parikh was named Tournament MVP. Parikh scored the second most runs for USA with 108, tied for fourth overall in the tournament with Bermuda’s Alex Dore, and also took seven wickets to lead USA in the category and tied with three other bowlers for second overall. Parikh also had the best economy rate of all bowlers in the tournament with 2.63 runs per over. Parikh’s performance of 67 not out and 4 for 6 in eight overs against Canada played a major part in boosting USA’s net run rate way ahead of Bermuda and Canada to ensure they won the tournament tiebreaker.