Canada falls short

THE CANADIAN PRESS

BRIDGETOWN, Barbados -- Jimmy Hansra drove in 40 runs, but Guyana stormed back to claim an eight-wicket win over Canada on Tuesday at the Caribbean Twenty20 cricket championship.

Canada (0-3) batted first, and its opening partnership drew mixed results. Hiral Patel drove in just four runs before being caught out in the fourth over, but Ruvindu Gunasekera lasted four overs longer and had six boundaries while driving in 38 runs.

Hansra, who hit three sixes, and Raza-ur-Rehman combined for 69 runs, and Nitish Kumar added 19 as Canada set a target of 143 runs over 20 overs, surrendering seven wickets.

Canadian head coach Michael Dighton thought Canada could have had more offensively, but was pleased his team improved on the 108 runs it posted in a lopsided loss to the Leeward Islands on Friday.

"We obviously improved on our last start, which I was extremely disappointed in," he said. "Still, the 143 that we posted could have easily been 160. We're always trying to regain the momentum, losing wickets all the way through.

"A couple of our players played really well. I thought the captain Hansra had a good knock. He was under a lot of pressure going into the game, not scoring as many runs as he might have liked."

Guyana (2-1) immediately put a dent in Canada's cushion as opening batsmen Trevon Griffith and Sewnarine Chattergoon drove in 22 and 29 runs respectively.

Guyana's next two batters did even better, with Narsingh Deonarine contributing 52 runs and Shivnarine Chanderpaul adding 36. Guyana scored the required 144 runs in 17 overs while surrendering just two wickets.

Canada, last in Pool A, plays Thursday against Trinidad and Tobago. The team would like to get a win in this tournament before heading to Dubai in March for the 2012 ICC World Twenty20 Qualifier.

"We haven't been blown out of the water by any stretch of the imagination, but on the other hand I think we're a better team than what we've shown," Dighton said. "We still get some of the basics of the game wrong at times, and there's no excuses from us, we're looking to get better and build towards the big tournament in Dubai."

In Tuesday's other game, the Windward Islands secured a third straight victory by beating the Leeward Islands by 22 runs.

Shane Shillingford's brilliant all-around display inspired the comfortable victory, with his late hitting lifting his team to 157-7 off 20 overs before claiming 4-22 as the Leewards folded for 135 off 19.2 overs.

The Windwards began swiftly against their archrivals as openers Johnson Charles (20) and Miles Bascombe (20) added 42 inside three overs.

Fast bowler Gavin Tonge hit back with 3-27 and Justin Athanaze also claimed 3-12.

But Devon Smith's top score of 31 anchored the late overs and Shillingford hit 21 not out off 10 balls to boost the total.

Kieran Powell and Austin Richards gave the Leewards' pursuit a flying start with an opening stand of 45.

Darren Sammy struck with his first ball and Shillingford sliced through the middle order. There were also three run outs as the Leewards fell away limply and exited the tournament with one win and three defeats from its four matches.

-- With files from The Associated Press