Canada 118 for 3 (Hansra 68*) beat Bermuda 114 for 7 (Pervez 3-17) by seven wickets
Scorecard and ball-by-ball details
Canada were one game away from making an undefeated run to the ICC Americas T20 title for the second time after breezing to a seven-wicket win over Bermuda at Indianapolis World Sports Park. Bermuda managed just 114 for 7 after winning the toss, and an unbeaten 79-run stand between Jimmy Hansra and Srimantha Wijeratne took Canada home with 10 balls to spare.
Bermuda's batting stumbled early once again and had difficulty recovering: Dion Stovell was lbw playing across the line to fast bowler Cecil Pervez on the first ball of the match. Christian Burgess was out for 5 to make it 15 for 2 on the first ball of the fourth over as Hansra took a superb catch - a skier over extra cover that swirled in the wind off the bowling of Saad Bin Zafar. David Hemp, Bermuda's leading scorer in Indianapolis, fell for 12, mistiming Satsimranjit Singh to Rizwan Cheema at cover.
Bermuda captain Janeiro Tucker top-scored with 34 but survived a run-out chance before he had scored. Zafar had a clear shot at the stumps from short third man with Tucker six yards short and having given up, but the throw was errant. Tucker wound up lasting until the 15th over, adding 47 runs with Tre Manders before he was well caught by wicketkeeper Hamza Tariq off a thick edge while attempting to cut offspinner Nikhil Dutta.
As he did against USA in a Man-of-the-Match performance, Pervez returned to produce a superb spell at the death to take a wicket in the 18th and 20th overs. Both times he clipped the top of off stump, getting Delray Rawlins for 24 and Josclyn Pitcher for a duck. Left-arm spinner Farhan Malik claimed Jacobi Robinson for 1 to round off the wicket-takers for Canada with Pervez's 3 for 17 the best figures on the day.
Canada's chase got off to a slightly rocky start. Just as he did in the first game against Bermuda, Ruvindu Gunasekera pulled to fine leg but once again a straightforward chance was put down, this time in the first over before he had scored. Bermuda kept coming hard though and three balls later Cheema was beaten for pace on an attempted drive and bowled by Pitcher for 1. Gunasekera then fell on the first ball of the second when he was bowled by Jordan DeSilva for 6 to make it 7 for 2. Nitish Kumar entered at three and lasted until the final ball of the eighth, when he lofted Stovell to Manders at long off for 12.
Hansra was joined by Wijeratne and the pair chased down the target with relative ease. He brought up his 50 in 46 balls with a single off Tucker to end the 15th before teeing off for a six straight down the ground off Robinson in the 16th. Three overs later, he finished off the match by hitting a towering six that ricocheted off the top of the sightscreen scaffolding on the north side of the ground to finish unbeaten on 68. Wijeratne was not out on 26. Hansra said Canada were not satisfied with being 5-0 and were motivated to go for an undefeated title run by beating USA in the tournament final on Saturday.
"It means a lot. What we came here to do, we're just one game away to accomplish that goal," Hansra told ESPNcricinfo after the win. "We wanted to win convincingly. I think we've done that so far. Bowlers and batters have stepped up when needed. Tomorrow we know we have a good game. USA is going to come hard at us. We just have to keep calm and do the little things right and I think we'll be fine."
