Brampton, July 28 2024-
The first weekend double-header at the fourth edition of the Global T20, Canada witnessed two cracking encounters at the CAA Centre, Brampton with the Bangla Tigers Mississauga recording their season’s first win before Toronto Nationals wrapped up the third day’s action in North America’s premier cricket league with a second straight win on Saturday.
After the Shakib Al Hasan-led Bangla Tigers dished out a brilliant all-round effort to hand the Vancouver Knights a 22-run loss, Toronto Nationals came up with yet another disciplined bowling effort to comfortably beat the David Warner-led Brampton Wolves by eight wickets.
Warner’s decision to bat at the toss, instantly backfired as Western Australian paceman Jason Behrendorff jolted the team with two wickets from two balls in the very first over before Canada’s star opener Aaron Johnson was caught inches short of his crease without facing a ball that left the side reeling at 5 for 3.
Romario Shepherd further dented the Wolves’ inside the power-play by removing Scottish keeper-bat George Munsey, the top-scorer against Surrey Jaguars on Saturday, before Beau Webster and Nick Hobson put up a semblance of a fightback with a 40-run stand to take the Wolves past the 50-run mark by the 10th over of the innings.
However, the joy was shortlived for the Wolves once Hobson and Webster departed in quick succession before the lower-order batters came up with handy cameos to take the side to 110. For the Toronto Nationals, Junaid Siddiqui was the pick of the bowlers with three wickets while Behrendorff and Shepherd picked a couple each.
In reply, Toronto Nationals were clinical in their approach, with former India U-19 World Cup-winning captain Unmukt Chand leading the pack with a calculative half-century. Chand, who slammed an undefeated 53 off 40 deliveries received great support from Rassie van der Dussen (25) with the pair forging together a 79-run second wicket stand to set the stage for a comfortable win despite losing skipper Colin Munro (11) cheaply.
Earlier in the day, Bangla Tigers Mississauga dominated with both bat and ball to beat Vancouver Knights by 22 runs and register their first win of the 2024 edition of Global T20 Canada. They are now on two points from as many matches while Vancouver are winless after two games.
Asked to bat first, Bangla Tigers survived a few early jolts to post 152/7 in their 20 overs before veteran Bangladesh all-rounder and captain Shakib Al Hasan spearheaded the Tigers’ bowling attack with 3/10 to restrict Vancouver to 130/6.
The Bangla Tigers rode on a spirited lower-order fightback led by Pakistan’s Iftikhar Ahmed (50 not out) and notable contributions from Canadian all-rounder Pargat Singh (20), Afghanistan’s Hazratullah Zazai (33) and West Indian Dilon Heyliger (27) to put up the fighting total. Nepal leg-spinner Sandeep Lamichhane was the pick of the Vancouver bowlers with figures of 2/32.
The Vancouver chase never really took off as they lost wickets at regular intervals. Their innings started on a shaky note as an attempted extravagant shot by skipper Usman Khwaja saw a David Wiese delivery crash into the stumps in the very first over. The second wicket fell in the next over as Munir Ahmad was trapped lbw by Shoriful Islam. It all went downhill for Vancouver from there on.
A defiant half-century by Canada all-rounder Harsh Thaker (79 not out off 67) was the only saving grace for the Vancouver innings. (Agency)
