Canada captain Nitish Kumar broke out of the shadows among the other bigger names in Toronto Nationals as he did a fine rescue job for his team to recover them from 33/4 in the 6th over, to eventually finish at 169/7 in their 20 overs. Nitish smashed 55 from 37 deliveries and a late cameo from UAE’s Mohammad Naveed (26 n.o off 13) took Toronto to their final total on board.
An onslaught by Luke Ronchi (47 off 18), Andre Fletcher (68 n.o off 39) and Agha Salman (38 off 27) took Toronto out of the game completely as Edmonton Royals won their opening game of the tournament.
Cricket West Indies “B” team survived a tough outing in their opening game of the tournament against Montreal Tigers in the 2nd match of the day. Brandon King and Nicholas Pooran hit 50’s for the team. Both were particularly severe on Nepal’s Sandeep Lamichhane, who conceded 1/57 off his 4 overs for Montreal.
Montreal’s score of 184/9 was largely due to contributions from Sikander Raza (48), Sunil Narine (28) and Moises Henriques (26). Jeremiah Louis (3/42), Obed McCoy (3/31) and Khary Pierre (2/20) did the bulk of the damage for CWI “B” team.
Malinga and Siddle picked up 2 wickets each for Montreal Tigers but CWI “B” team managed to reach 187/8 in the 20th over of their chase, with Shamar Springer playing the crucial knock of 27 unbeaten runs from 18 deliveries to take them to victory.
Action continues on Canada Day with a double-header Sunday in GT20 Canada.
