Brampton, July 26 (FN Agency) The fourth edition of the Global T20 Canada got off to a rousing start with the Toronto Nationals putting up a clinical all-round performance to open their campaign in North America’s marquee cricket league with an eight-wicket win over Vancouver Knights at the CAA Centre, here on Thursday night. Toronto Nationals’ decision to field after winning the toss on a fresh wicket paid rich dividends as Canadian national team star Junaid Siddiqui spun a web around the Vancouver Knights with a four-wicket haul to keep things in control before a late burst from Yuvraj Samra, Sandeep Lamichhane and Paul van Meekeren propelled the inaugural Global T20 Canada champions to 110. In response, the Toronto Nationals banked on a steady opening partnership from skipper Colin Munro and former India Under-19 World Cup-winning captain Unmukt Chand to set the tone for the chase with a 41-run stand before a googly from leg-spinner Lamichhane ended Chand’s vigil after consuming 23 deliveries for his 23, laced with four hits to the fence. But there was no stopping Munro as the New Zealander immediately switched gears to leave the Nationals’ needing just 46 from the final 10 overs.
New man Rassie van der Dussen, one of the architects of Vancouver Knights’ title-winning campaign in 2018, joined the party by depositing Lamichhane over long off before Munro further spoilt the Nepali leggie’s figures with two more sixes as the second wicket partnership swelled to 47 runs. Paul van Meekeren applied the brakes to Nationals’ march to victory with the wicket of Munro for a 39-ball 44, but van der Dussen (31 not out off 18) and Nicholas Kirton (4 not out) ensured that the Nationals got over the line with 32 balls to spare. Earlier, the Knights recovered from the early loss of their skipper in Australian opener Usman Khawaja (3) with South African Reeza Hendricks (23) and one-drop Afghanistan’s Munir Ahmed (23) putting up a 40-run second wicket partnership before Siddiqui and fellow Canadian star Saad Bin Zafar opened the floodgates for the Toronto Nationals. Wickets tumbled in heaps for the Knights with Harsh Thaker and Nitish Kumar falling prey to Siddiqui’s leg-spin without disturbing the scorers before Dwaine Pretorius’s brief cameo of a 13-ball 16 was brought to an end by a sharp Nicholas Kirton’s throw from the boundary line.
Reduced to 73 for 7 by the 17th over, Nepal’s star Sandeep Lamichhane arrived to a thunderous applause from the crowd and he responded with a second-ball boundary to raise hopes of a turnaround for the Knights in the company of teenaged Canadian talent Yuvraj Samra, who remained unbeaten on a run-a-ball 14. The flourishing 24-run partnership between the duo was halted by a double blow from UAE left-arm pacer Muhammad Rohid (2/29) with the scalps of Lamichhane and new man in Pakistan’s star pacer Mohammed Amir. Later, Paul van Meekeren (12 off 4) came up with a few lusty blows to take the 2018 champions past the three-figure mark. The marquee T20 tournament features six teams, locking horns in a round-robin format to get their hands on the coveted title at the CAA Centre, Brampton. The T20 league will see a total of 21 league matches, with the final set to be played on August 11.