BRIDGETOWN, Barbados, CMC – Adrian Barath signalled his return to top-level competition, when he stroked an entertaining half-century to lead Trinidad & Tobago to a nine-wicket victory over Canada in the Caribbean Twenty20 Championship yesterday.

Barath struck four fours and five sixes from 47 balls, as T&T, chasing 111 for victory from their allocation of 20 overs, reached their target with 35 balls to spare in the opening match of the competition at Kensington Oval.

The diminutive opener formalised the result, when he guided a short, rising ball from Harvir Baidwan to third man for a deuce, and was later named Man-of-the-Match.

Barath shared 68 for the first wicket with William Perkins, who made 18 before Hiral Patel bowled him in the eighth over.

Barath reached his 50 from 35 balls, when he drove Patel to long-off for a single before he and the embattled Lendl Simmons navigated T&T to their target.

T&T had sent the Canadians in to bat, and restricted them to 110 for eight in 20 overs.

New Zealand-born left-hander Geoff Barnett hit three fours and two sixes in 37 from 33 balls, and Z Surkari made 26.

Dave Mohammed bowled impressively, when he snared two wickets for 10 runs from his four overs, and Kieron Pollard collected two for 23 from four overs.

Dwayne Bravo set Canada back early, when he had Travin Bastiampillai caught behind for one in the third over.

But T&T really wobbled the Canadians, when they removed Patel, Barnett, the captain Rizwan Cheema, and Tyson Gordon for 16 runs in the space of 16 balls between the 11th and 14th over to leave the North American side on 61 for five.

T&T were then held up, when Surkari added 42 for the sixth wicket with Umar Bhatti before he was run out off the first ball of the last over.

Pollard then claimed Baidwan and Hamza Tariq to bring the Canadian innings to a close.