Bahamas captures gold, Panama silver at the Americas Affiliates tournament

Game # 9 Panama v Turks & Caicos

The host country won the silver medal by defeating Turks & Caicos by 70 runs to finish with a 3-1 record. After a first game defeat to the Bahamas ,Panama was one of the most impressive teams in the tournament. Today after winning the toss their batsmen went to work with Tariiq Daya leading the way with a fine innings of 55. Bashir Patel added a useful 54* batting at number 9 as the home team reached a respectable target of 275 in 49.5 overs. M.Baptiste , one of the Turks and Caicos most consistent performers at the tournament scored another fine innings of 54 but the rest of the Turks lineup found the target insurmountable and fell short by 70 runs in the 43rd over.

The victory gave the home side the silver medal. Zahir Motala was awarded the man of the match.

Game # 10 Bahamas v Suriname

Winless Suriname found themselves pitted against undefeated Bahamas and after winning the toss they decided it was time to relax and enjoy some cricket. An outstanding innings of 70 by Kemraj Hardat lead the Suriname team to a most respectable total of 225 in 49.4 overs. When the Bahamas innings started it was clear they were not going to allow the Championship to slip away and a fine opening partnership of 128 between Dwight Wheatley (108) and Lester Taylor (29) all but locked up the gold medal. Howard Roye chipped in with 33 as the Bahamas passed their target in 41st over with 7 wickets to spare. Dwight Wheatley was Man of the Match for scoring the tournament's second century.

Bermuda will now be invited to participate in the Associates Championship to be held in Bermuda July 5-11, 2004