Canada cricketers celebrate T20 World Cup qualification with win over Bermuda

Teenage batsman Yuvraj Samra scored 45 runs Sunday as Canada celebrated qualification for next year's ICC Men's T20 World Cup with a six-wicket win over Bermuda in the final game of the four-country Americas Qualifier.

Canada's seven-wicket win over the Bahamas on Saturday, coupled with Bermuda's nine-wicket loss to the Cayman Islands, sealed the Canadian qualification on the penultimate day of the four-team qualifier.

Sunday's win, which improved Canada's tournament record to 6-0-0, was icing on the qualifying cake.

"It's a great feeling," captain Nicholas Kirton said of qualification. "Obviously we were there a year ago, so it's good to be preparing for that again.

"Playing with a team like that, obviously it's easy to get into the winning habit. It's just to keep doing the basics right and hopefully we can continue."

Canada made its T20 World Cup debut last year, failing to advance out of the group stage after beating No. 11 Ireland and losing to No. 8 Pakistan and co-host United States, ranked 17th. A match against No. 1 India was abandoned because of inclement weather.

Bermuda won the toss Sunday and elected to bat at the Maple Leaf Cricket Ground where it was 32 C feeling like a steamy 39 C for the mid-afternoon start. After a storming inning of 70 runs by No. 3 batsman Delray Rawlins, Bermuda's batting order crumbled.

Canada put up its half-century in the fifth over with Samra accounting for 40 of the runs. But the 18-year-old was bowled by Dominic Sabir in the sixth over with Canada at 63 for one. Samra finished with three sixes and five fours in his 23-ball knock.

Fellow opener Dilpreet Bajwa was caught two balls later on 12 runs off 10 deliveries. And Pargat Singh was run out the next over with Canada at 65 for