Cricket with Dalchand Bissoon 

Canada won their first match of the series last Monday by three wickets against Zimbabwe A, a much needed victory after losing the other three matches.

Canada, replying to the Zimbabwe A score of 238 for eight wickets in their 50 overs, reached 240 for seven wickets in 48.4 overs with Ruvindu Gunasekera topscoring with 109 from 115 balls which included three sixes.

Navneet Dhaliwal scored a valuable half-century 57 as the pair put on 135 runs for the fourth wicket partnership.

Canada lost their first match by 111 runs, the second by one wicket and the third by seven wickets.

The Canadian squad will travel to Namibia to participate in the Pepsi ICC World Cricket League (WCL) Division 2 which runs Jan. 17 through 24.

The six teams participating in the eight-day tournament are host Namibia, Kenya, Netherlands, Nepal, Uganda and Canada with the winner going through to the ICC four-day Intercontinental Cup and the Pepsi ICC World Cricket League Championship.

The opening day of the tournament (Jan. 17) sees Nambia vs Kenya, Netherlands vs Canada and Uganda vs Nepal. The other matches scheduled to be played by Canada are Jan. 18 against Kenya, Jan. 20 vs Nepal,  Jan. 21 vs Uganda and Jan. 23 against Namibia.

In other cricket news, the West Indies defeated South Africa in the first and second T20I matches. The first match was last Friday at Cape Town. West Indies won by four wickets. In the second, played at Johannesburg, West Indies won by four wickets. The third and final match was last Wednesday at Durban.

West Indies and South Africa will play five ODIs. The first starts tomorrow (Jan. 16) at Kingsmead, Durban.