In an exciting final, the Toronto Nationals, the reigning champions, lost to the Toronto Bombers by eight wickets as they emerged victorious from the fourth season of Global T20 Canada on Sunday. Toronto Nationals were dominant at the bat and with the ball.
Thus, in the top T20 league in North America, the Toronto Nationals won their first championship. The Montreal Tigers’ management welcomed Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to the Global T20 Canada stadium during the tournament, and he was later given a jersey.
Colin Munro, the captain of Toronto, won the toss and witnessed his choice to field first well rewarded as Montreal’s batting collapsed, allowing them to only score a pitiful 96/9 in their 20 overs.
The Toronto Nationals won the game relatively handily as Andries Gous produced a game-winning half-century. Shortly after reaching the crease, he sustained a broken finger, making the innings even more amazing. But despite the suffering, the American international persevered to score 58 runs off of 49 balls without losing and guarantee the Toronto Nationals’ thrilling triumph.
Heavy rain for a few hours postponed the toss, making the already difficult batting conditions at TD Stadium in Brampton much more difficult.
Australian pacer Jason Behrendorff exploited the conditions to his advantage, bowling a masterful show of swing for impressive figures of 3/8 in his four overs. That gave Toronto the upper hand and caused the top order in Montreal to tumble at bat.
Opening batsman Praveen Kumar was sent back to the pavilion by Toronto pacer Romario Shepherd in the second over, dealing the Tigers their first early blow.
The very next over dealt a double blow to Montreal when Jason Behrendorff got rid of Tim Seifert (0) and Gerhard Erasmus (2) in back-to-back deliveries.
Chris Lynn (3) did not last long either. After trying a crazy slog off Behrendorff, the Montreal captain gave Toronto wicketkeeper Unmukt Chand an easy top edge.
Nearly immediately after his arrival, Sherfane Rutherford (1) returned, providing a simple catch off the bowling of Junaid Siddiqui, which put the Tigers in serious danger and forced half of their batting lineup back into the dugout before the power play ended.
To guarantee that the Tigers’ innings lasted the entire 20 overs, Corbin Bosch (35), Jaskaran Singh (16), and others combined to score 46 runs.
With the second ball of the opening over, Azmatullah Omarzai trapped captain Colin Munro leg before for nought, setting the Toronto chase in motion. Bosch raised hopes of a powerful comeback by bowling out fellow opener Unmukt Chand (4) in the next over.
But in the event that Montreal supporters were expecting a team turnaround, they were going to be very disappointed with Andries Gous and Rassie van der Dussen (30 not out), as their undefeated partnership of 85 runs saw the Nationals cross the finish line without any further mishaps.
George Munsey, the wicketkeeper-batter for the Brampton Wolves, was crowned the tournament’s most outstanding batsman after leading the charts with 218 runs, while Romario Shepherd of the Toronto Nationals was declared the tournament’s best bowler with 14 wickets.
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Player of the Tournament went to UAE import Junaid Siddique of the Toronto Nationals, while Emerging Player of the Tournament went to Canadian rookie Dilpreet Bajwa of the runners-up Montreal Tigers.