Bermuda fights back in final session of the day

Captains and Umpires at the toss © ICC

Bermuda, trying to defend a modest first innings score of 125 , fought back in the final session of play to restrict Canada's lead to 24 runs with four wickets in hand.

A fine bowling spell after tea by Salem Mukaddem ( 11-3-34-3) and Dwayne Leverock ( 14-5-26-1) saw four Canadian wickets fall for six runs.

A 5th wicket partnership of 55 between Sunil Dhaniram and Ashish Bagai brought the Canadians closer to Bermuda's total before Dhaniram was bowled by Mukaddem with the score at 90. Bagai was joined by George Codrington and this pair added an unbeaten stand of 59 to end the day's play with Canada up by 24 runs with four wickets in hand.

Ashish Bagai © ICC

For Ashish Bagai it was a great return to the national squad after being unavailable for the 2005 ICC Trophy in Ireland. Bagai must be enjoying his efforts this day after holding four catches behind the stumps he was clearly the best batsman today with a solid 72 not out, including ten boundaries.

The selectors had originally left him off the team fearing his inactivity due to work commitments might have made him a little rusty. When Desmond Chumney failed his per tournament medical the selectors was forced to reconsider their position , there was no rust showing today for the former Canadian U19 World Cup team captain .

Umar Bhatti © ICC

Earlier in the day , another U19 Youth World Cup team captain, Umar Bhatti wrecked the Bermuda's batting side with a brilliant bowling performance of 17.5-4-40-8. For the young, left hand medium-fast bowler it was his best bowling performance, out doing his performance in the Intercontinental Cup finals in 2004.

After a disappointing performance in the recent ICC Trophy and an injury which caused him to miss several games it was good news for Bermuda as their veteran Captain Clay Smith returned to form with a solid innings of 52

The first session on day two just might determine which way this game will go. An early break through for Bermuda would put them back into the fight despite their batting failure on day one. Should Bagai and Codrington continue their unbeaten stand well into play before lunch , Canada would certainly put a firm grip on game one of the Intercontinental Cup.