ONTARIO, Canada – A superb bowling effort by Jason Holder was not enough as the Sagicor West Indies High Performance Centre went down by three wickets to Canada in their Canadian Summer Festival tri-nation 50-over match on Thursday.
After his side was bowled out for 118, the 18-year-old pacer took three wickets for nine runs from his 10 overs to rip the heart out of the home side’s middle order at the Malton SCG. Standing six-feet-seven-inches, Holder was able to get the ball to move both ways and he produced a excellent spell as Canada slipped from 42-1 to 76-6. They eventually recovered and ended on 119-7 off 48.4 overs.
Holder was well backed up by speedster Shannon Gabriel, who topped 90 miles-per-hour consistently and rattled the Canadians. He ended with 1-33 from 10 overs, while left-arm spinner Veerasammy Permaul was accurate and bagged 1-10 from his 10 overs.
The batting hero for Canada was Jimmy Hansra, who finished on 30 not out. He played a sensible knock and did an excellent job of shepherding the lower order. Earlier in the innings, opener Nitish Kumar laid the foundation with a dogged 24 from 92 balls, but he was undone by a smart piece of bowling from Holder.
In the first half of the match, the Sagicor HPC failed with the bat being dismissed with seven overs still left. The top score came from opener Rajendra Chandrika, who made 28 from 66 balls. Ashley Nurse made 18 from 20 balls, while Nkrumah Bonner, got 18 but it required 57 balls.
Canada’s best bowler was captain Rizwan Cheema, who took 4-20 from his seven overs as the lower order collapsed, while Parth Desai took 2-18 from his ten overs.
The next match for the Sagicor HPC is a T20 contest against Bermuda today.