Published On:Monday, February 08, 2010

By BRENT STUBBS

Senior Sports Reporter

bstubbs@tribunemedia.net

FORGET the fact that they missed the opportunity to avenge a previous defeat to Suriname, the Bahamas men's national cricket team can pack their bags for Bermuda and Kuwait.

On the final day of the International Cricket Council's Pepsi Americas Division 2 Tournament on Saturday at Haynes Oval, the Bahamas fell victim to Suriname, suffering their first loss by a mere three wickets.

But by virtue of the best run rate, the Bahamas was declared the tournament winner and have advanced to the Americas Division 1 in May in Bermuda.

Additionally, the Bahamas will get a chance to play in the Division 8 of the World League in December in Kuwait.

Although somewhat disappointed in the defeat to Suriname, Bahamas national team manager Irving Taylor said advancing to the next round has certainly made up for it.

"This was supposed to be a payback for Suriname today," Taylor said. "Unfortunately, due to a lot of miss fielding on our part, they were able to beat us."

Suriname won the toss and elected to field in a match that was reduced to 35 overs because of the wet grounds.

The Bahamas scored 186 runs, but they watched helplessly as Suriname responded with 189 to seal the match, pulling off another victory as they did in Suriname.

"Before the game even started today, we were aware that they would win the tournament on run rate," Taylor said. "So it would have been good to win the match and remain undefeated."

Ryan Tappin was the man of the match for the Bahamas with 63 runs. Shajam Ramjohn had 49 out for Suriname in the loss.

The Bahamas, Suriname and Panama all finished the tournament with a 3-1 win-loss record, but when accumulated, the Bahamas came out on top via the run rate to advance to the Division One.

"Our team played very well," Taylor said. "But we should have won that match against Suriname. We just have to take the lost in stride. You win some and you lose some."

Panama's manager Ismael Patel said they felt the tournament was very well organised and they enjoyed their stay in the Bahamas.

But Suriname's association president Raj Narain said they were not only disappointed that they didn't win the tournament, but he felt that the field at Haynes Oval was a little too small to host such an event.

As for the BCA's president Greg Taylor, he endorsed the sentiments of team manager Irving Taylor, indicating that they were quite disappointed that they didn't beat Suriname.

"This match was just supposed to be a revenge match," he said. "Although we didn't win the match, we still won the tournament, so I really want to congratulate the team, the executives, the fans and everybody who played a role in helping us to pull this off."

As the association prepares to travel, Taylor said they will definitely go back to the drawing board and add a couple more players to the training squad before the final selection is made.

Wendal Coppin, a native from Barbados, who serves as the Regional Director of the ICC Pepsi Americas Tournament, said the tournament was fantastic and he credited the BCC for the role they did in hosting their first major international event.

"You can see it was a full team effort," he said. "To have five national teams here playing on two different pitches is just remarkable and the Bahamas got the job done."

As the Bahamas move on to the Americas Division 1 in May, they will play against Canada, the United States, Bermuda, Argentina and the Cayman Islands.

At the end of the tournament on Saturday, there were a number of awards presented including the Man of the Match in all of the matches played and the individual and team awards from the overall tournament.

Winning the best batsman award was Greigor Caisley from Brazil with a total of 250 runs, while his team-mates Rudy Hartmann was the best bowler with 12 wickets and Guilherme Lefevre was the best wicket keeper.

However, the Player of the Tournament was 24-year-old Ryan Tappin, who earned his biggest accomplishment in his 13-year career.

"I had it as a goal to get the Player of the Tournament honours and it came through," Tappin said. "I played my heart out, but as a team, we played very well together and we came out successful."

There were also five players who produced a century in their matches. They were Bahamians Mark Taylor with 141 and Jon Barry with 117; Caisley with 130; Suriname's Vishul Singh with 159 and Turks & Cacios' Douglas Brown with 104.