The Toronto Nationals dominated with bat and ball to dethrone defending champions Montreal Tigers by 8 wickets in an enthralling final to be crowned the winner of the fourth season of Global T20 Canada on Sunday. The Toronto Nationals thus won their first title in North America’s main T20 competition. Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau also visited the Global T20 Canada venue during the league and met the Montreal Tigers management, and was then presented with a jersey.
Toronto captain Colin Munro won the toss and saw his decision to field for the first time vindicated in spectacular fashion as Montreal suffered a batting collapse and managed just a paltry total of 96/9 from their 20 overs.
Andries Gous then hit a match-winning half-century to secure a rather one-sided victory for the Toronto Nationals. The innings was made all the more remarkable by the fact that he broke a finger shortly after arriving at the crease. But the US international fought through the pain to remain unbeaten on 58 runs off 49 balls and ensure the Toronto Nationals secured victory in spectacular fashion.
The difficult batting conditions at TD Stadium in Brampton were made even more difficult by heavy rain that delayed the pitching by a few hours.
Australian pacer Jason Behrendorff made good use of the conditions to produce an excellent display of swing bowling with notable figures of 3/8 from his four overs. This triggered a batting collapse in Montreal’s top order and put Toronto firmly in command.
The Tigers suffered the first blow very early, with Toronto pacer Romario Shepherd sending opener Praveen Kumar back to the pavilion in the second over.
Montreal suffered a double blow in the next game when Jason Behrendorff dismissed Gerhard Erasmus (2) and Tim Seifert (0) in consecutive deliveries.
Chris Lynn (3) didn’t stay long either, as the Montreal captain attempted a wild move against Behrendorff, only to offer an easy edge to Toronto wicketkeeper Unmukt Chand.
Sherfane Rutherford (1) returned almost as soon as he arrived, offering an easy catch off the bowling of Junaid Siddiqui to leave the Tigers in trouble with half their batting line-up back in the dugout before the end of the power play.
However, Corbin Bosch (35) and Jaskaran Singh (16) combined to add 46 runs between them and ensure the Tigers’ innings lasted a full 20 overs.
The chase in Toronto got off to a bad start as captain Colin Munro was caught leg-before for nothing by Azmatullah Omarzai off the second ball of the opening over. Bosch released Unmukt Chand (4) in the next game to raise hopes of a strong fightback from the Tigers.
However, if Montreal fans were hoping for a turnaround from their team, Andries Gous and Rassie van der Dussen (30 not out) ensured they would be severely disappointed with an unbeaten 85-run partnership that propelled the Nationals over the line without any further hiccups .
Toronto Nationals’ Romario Shepherd was named bowler of the tournament for his 14 wickets, while Brampton Wolves batsman and wicketkeeper George Munsey was named batsman of the tournament for topping the charts with 218 runs.
Young Canadian Dilpreet Bajwa, who represented the runners-up Montreal Tigers, was named the tournament’s Emerging Player, while Junaid Siddique, a UAE import from the Toronto Nationals, was named Player of the tournament.
(Except the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a press release)
Topics mentioned in this article
This story originally appeared on ndtv.com read the full story
