Canada and Bermuda battle for entry into ICC U/19 Cricket World Cup

Canada and Bermuda are all set to go head-to-head for a place in next year's U/19 ICC Cricket World Cup.

Both teams have now won all three of their matches so far in the five-team round-robin Americas U/19 Qualifier in Toronto.

And the winner of Saturday's clash between the two sides will join the ICC's 10 Full Members, hosts Malaysia, and Papua New Guinea and Ireland (which recently qualified from the East-Asia Pacific and European Regions respectively) at the 16-team ICC U/19 Cricket World Cup to be played from 17 February to 2 March 2008 in Malaysia.

Hosts Canada defeated the Cayman Islands by nine wickets on Friday after spinner Arsalan Qadir returned figures of 5-2-6-5 and paceman Kevin James bagged 3-41 to bowl out the visitors for 77 in 25.2 overs.

Canada achieved target in 9.3 overs with opener Ruvindu Gunasekera carrying on his rich form to score an unbeaten 36 from 28 balls with seven fours.

In the other match on Saturday, the Cayman Islands will take on the Bahamas, which lost to Argentina by four wickets on Friday.

The Bahamas, put into bat, was bowled out for 113 in 37.2 overs and Argentina reached the target in 26.2 overs for the loss of six wickets.

Scores in brief:

Canada beat the Cayman Islands by nine wickets

Cayman Islands: 77 in 25.2 overs (Sacha De Alwis 26, Arsalan Qadir 5-2-6-5; Kevin James 3-41)

Canada: 79-1 in 9.3 overs (Ruvindu Gunasekera 36 not out)

Argentina beat Bahamas by four wickets

Bahamas: 113 in 37.2 overs (Jonathan Barry 38, Tomas Birnie 4-23, Pablo Siracusa 3-19, Ramiro Rodriguez Delgado 2-7)

Argentina: 114-6 in 26.2 overs Roderick Mitchell 3-40, Marc Taylor 2-40)

The ICC U/19 Cricket World Cup is a vital part of the ICC Development Program and provides a vehicle for the best young cricketers in the world to parade their skills.

Many of the future stars of the game experience their first true international exposure at this tournament and players such as Brian Lara, Michael Atherton, Yuvraj Singh, Inzamam-ul-Haq, Chris Cairns, Michael Clarke, Graeme Smith and Sanath Jayasuriya have used the event as a stepping stone to full international honours.

First staged in Australia in 1988, the tournament was initially organised on an occasional basis, but since the commencement of the ICC Development Program in 1997 it has become a biennial fixture.

The 2010 ICC U/19 Cricket World Cup will be held in Kenya while the 2012 tournament will be staged in Canada and UAE will host the 2014 edition.