Created: Oct 03, 2023 05:42 PM

Party poopers: Cayman Islands will be aiming to dent Bermuda’s aspirations of qualifying for the T20 Cricket World Cup

Cayman Islands captain Ramon Sealy is refusing to give up hope of qualifying for the T20 Cricket World Cup as his side aim to dent Bermuda’s aspirations in the Americas Regional Qualifier today at North Field, National Sports Centre.

Having brushed aside Panama in a comfortable seven-wicket success in their opening match on Saturday, Cayman were dealt a blow just a day later when going down to a 108-run loss to pre-tournament favourites Canada.

Despite the setback, Sealy is adamant that victory would thrust them into contention after drawing level on four points with Bermuda.

“It is definitely not over for us, but we have to come back stronger,” said Sealy, whose side are aiming to spoil the party in the first of their two matches against the home team.

“We have to play Bermuda twice, so we know a victory in the first match will put us back in a really good position and enhance our chances of qualifying.

“The idea is to hopefully be able to be party poopers. The home fans will be out in force and even though they have shown us great support so far, we know they will be against us.”

Turning his attention to Bermuda, Sealy singled out the threat of the home side’s batting prowess and highlighted his team’s need to restrict the momentum of the top order.

Captain Delray Rawlins and man of the match Kamau Leverock shone with the bat in the opening 86-run victory over Canada, while Tre Manders led the way in the seven-wicket success over Panama with an unbeaten 55.

“Bermuda are a good side, but we knew that coming into the tournament,” he added.

“They have quality players and we know if we don’t get rid of their top-order batters quickly, we could be in for a long day, especially on their home soil.

“They know these conditions inside out, which makes things even more difficult, but we have to try and restrict them as much as we can and then try and capitalise from there.”

Sealey, 32, concedes there was plenty of lessons learnt from their defeat last time out in which Canada posted 194 for six in 20 overs, the highest score so far in the tournament, before bowling Cayman out for 86 runs in 17.1 overs.

“We definitely have some things to work on,” he said. “We had some bright periods in the game, but we fell short of having that complete performance.

“We allowed them to get off to a flyer before managing to pull them back a bit, but then let them settle again and score some big runs to take the game away from us.

“Anytime you have to chase close to 200 runs in a T20 match you know it’s going to be a struggle. Momentum is so important and so we have to make sure when we get a good period in the game that we keep that pressure on rather than letting things slip away.

“We can’t do anything about what happened in the previous match and so we have to move on quickly. We know we are better players than what we showed, but that’s cricket sometimes and we have to learn from it in the next match.”

Bermuda have one injury worry going into their third game of the competition, with a question mark over the fitness of Cejay Outerbridge.

The pace bowler, who claimed three wickets in the victory over Canada in his first international match since 2018, was forced off against Panama on Sunday after suffering a slight knee injury in the field.

The match starts at 2.30pm with Canada taking on Panama in the opener at 10am.