Bermuda Win the North America Cup: O'Brien's Five Sixes, Then 59 All Out

These two sides had already met twice at the Jimmy Powell Oval this week, and they had split the games. On September 23 Cayman Islands won the first by two wickets and Bermuda won the second by ten. The final, on Sunday, was cut to 15 overs a side, and it turned into a low-scoring contest.

It was not a batting day. Bermuda's 101 for 9 looked short when they were 46 for 3 in the ninth over, and it only reached three figures because Isaiah O'Brien hit 43 from 22 balls with five sixes. It turned out to be far more than enough. Cayman Islands were 29 for 6 inside seven overs and all out for 59 off the last ball of their innings. Bermuda won by 42 runs and are the North America Cup champions.

Cayman chose to field and for most of the innings the decision looked right. Dominic Sabir went for 4 in the third over, and Delray Rawlins, whose 17-ball fifty had won the 3rd place play-off the night before, could not get going this time. He made 10 from 20 balls before Malcolm Ramlogan had him caught by Romario Edwards. Kamau Leverock hit 18 from 11, but when Terryn Fray fell for 7 from 15 balls, Bermuda were 46 for 3 after 8.5 overs. On an evening when runs were hard to come by, the bowlers were on top.

Isaiah O'Brien changed that. He hit five sixes and two fours, so 38 of his 43 runs came in boundaries, and Bermuda added 55 while he was in. The only innings that looked as if it belonged on a different pitch was his. It also nearly finished too early for Bermuda to benefit. Romario Edwards took three wickets in the 14th over, all of them in four balls, and Bermuda went from 88 for 5 to 88 for 8. O'Brien was still there, and he took Bermuda to 101 before he was caught off the last ball of the innings.

Edwards finished with 3 for 6 from two overs and also ran out Charles Trott. Vick Dhaniram's two overs cost three runs and included a maiden. Bermuda also gave away 13 extras. On a day when a total of 101 won by 42, those were important runs.

The chase needed 6.8 an over, and a good start would have made that easy. Instead Rawlins bowled Sachin Diwangana in the second over, and Sabir ran out Jermaine Baker in the third. Bishal Kharty hit a four in his 10 from 7 before Kevon Fubler had him caught by Sabir, and Cayman were 17 for 3. Kwaisi James, who took 4 for 26 in the play-off, then struck twice in three balls in the sixth over. First Andre McCarthy was caught by Fray, then Sam Foster was stumped by Sinclair Smith. When Derrick Brangman had Romeo Dunka caught in the next over, the hosts were 29 for 6.

Dhaniram was the only batter who tried to counter-attack. His 14 from 11 balls included the innings' only six, and he was the ninth man out, caught off James at 44. After that, Adrian Wright and Malcolm Ramlogan batted out more than five overs for 15 runs before Leverock bowled Wright with the final ball. Cayman had not been able to set up a chase. Two run-outs, and five of the first six batters out for single figures by the seventh over, meant it was never really on. Cayman bowled well enough to win most games against a 101 total. It was their batting that let them down.

The scorecard does not list a Player of the Match, but the case for O'Brien is simple. He made 43 of Bermuda's 101, the highest score in the match, when the side's other ten batters made 45 between them off the bat. Nobody on the Cayman side reached 15. His five sixes were more than twice as many as the rest of the match produced put together, with Leverock and Dhaniram hitting one each. Take away his 22 balls and the final looks very different.

Kwaisi James deserves a mention too. After his 4 for 26 in the play-off he took 3 for 17 in the final, and in both matches his wickets came when the innings was starting to fall apart.

This final didn't have a CricIntel preview. The fixture was not confirmed until the play-off result on September 26, so we'll have full analysis for the next encounter between these two sides.

Bermuda are the champions. Their tournament included a two-wicket defeat to Cayman, a ten-wicket win over them, an eight-wicket win over the Bahamas in the play-off and now a 42-run win in the final. Cayman Islands, the hosts, beat Bermuda once and the Bahamas by 131 runs, but when it mattered they could not score the runs they needed. Four group games this week were abandoned or ended without a result, so even a shortened final gave the tournament a proper finish. Unlock CricIntel Pro for Americas cricket coverage.