Global T20, Canada: Montreal Tigers, Surrey Jaguars register contrasting wins

Staying true to its billing of being the premier cricket league of North America, the GT20, Canada on Sunday produced two electrifying contests in which a collective effort from the Montreal Tigers’ bowlers, led by Canadian star Kaleem Sana helped the Tigers edge past Vancouver Knights by 10 runs, and later in the afternoon, Marcus Stoinis’ all-round brilliance and Sunil Narine’s magic helped Surrey Jaguars open their account with a massive 80-run win over the Toronto Nationals.

Popularly known as The Hulk, Stoinis, who joined the Jaguars on Saturday made an instant impact by spearheading the side’s batting with an aggressive 37-ball 57, laced with three fours and four giant sixes to help the Big Cats post a healthy 161 for 6 after being asked to bat.

Later during the chase, the premier Australian all-rounder led his troops from the front with three wickets after the Jaguars’ West Indian import Sunil Narine came up with his bag of tricks to claim 3/5 to help the side to their first win of the tournament.

After Kyle Mayers (27 off 23 balls) gave the Jaguars a flying start, the Nationals managed to pull back things with a burst of wickets to reduce the opposition for 75 for 4. Stoinis then resurrected the team’s batting with a crucial 57-run fifth wicket partnership with Malaysian Virandeep Singh (23 not out off 20) to propel the side past the 150-run mark.

In response, the Nationals were forced to bring in a new opening combo after their skipper Colin Munro got hit during the first innings. Unmukt Chand began in his trademark style, scoring a 17-ball 21 to put on 30 runs for the opening wicket with Canadian national team skipper Nicholas Kirton (11) before Narine’s introduction triggered a collapse besides squeezing the run-rate from which the Nationals could never recover and were eventually restricted to 81.

The win helped the Jaguars bag two points and vault to the third spot in the leaderboard while the Nationals dropped a spot to the second with four points from three outings.

Tigers’ bowlers hunt down Knights

Earlier in the day, Montreal Tigers edged out Vancouver Knights by 10 runs in a thrilling encounter. The Knights won the toss and opted to bowl, which proved to be a good decision as the Tigers were restricted to 144/7 in their 20 overs.

There was no shortage of drama during the Knights’ chase that was almost derailed by the fall of wickets at regular intervals until a spirited lower order fightback almost got them over the line before the Tigers bounced back in time to restrict the Knights to 134/6.

With that win, Montreal rose to the top spot in the standings with four points having won both their matches while Vancouver are tottering at the penultimate (fifth) spot after losing all the three matches they have played so far.

Montreal suffered a top order collapse that saw them tottering at 29/5 by the sixth over before Canadian international Dillpreet Bajwa (33 off 22 balls) and Afghanistan star Azmatullah Omerzai (27 off 30) attempted a fight back with a 58-run partnership over the next seven overs. Thereafter, a fine unbeaten knock by Corbin Bosch (35 off 25 balls) helped the Tigers to a respectable total.

In reply, the Knights ran into trouble right from the start with skipper Usman Khawaja trapped leg before by Omarzai in the first over. With the Montreal bowlers dominating the show, Vancouver were left struggling at 73/5 in the 15th over. However, Dwaine Pretorius ( 31 off 20) and Dipendra Singh Airee (30 not out off 15) put together 60 runs off 30 deliveries to give the Tigers a mighty scare. But the Knights’ hopes of pulling off an unlikely victory were dashed when Pretorius was dismissed by Kaleem Sana with two balls to go.