Global T20 final set for Sunday

By Ravendra Madholall

Jamaica and West Indies attacking batsman Chadwick Walton

The final preliminary round of matches was played last weekend in the 2019 Global T20 at the CCA Centre, Brampton, and now the stage is set for the final this Sunday at the same facility.

Brampton Wolves has emerged as the leading team with nine points from six games while defending champions Vancouver Knights was number two with eight points from a similar number of matches.,

Six teams are still in the race for the US$500, 000 first prize. The four other teams – Montreal Tigers, Winnipeg Hawks, Edmonton Royals and Toronto Nationals – are now engaged in the play-off segment.

In one of the exciting encounters on Sunday, Knights made light work of Brampton Wolves, who won four games while Knights collected three victories.

Wolves batted first after winning the toss and reached an inadequate 138 all out while Vancouver Knights, in reply, reached 139-2 in the 16th over.

Former West Indies and Jamaica wicketkeeper/batsman Chadwick Walton led the way with an entertaining, unbeaten 53, which counted four fours and two sixes from 45 balls. Pakistan experienced batsman Shoaib Malik was also in fine form scoring 41 not out.

In Brampton Wolves’ innings, Babar Hayat made 34 and West Indies and Trinidad and Tobago’s attacking opener Lendl Simmons hit 30.

In the other fixture the same day, Toronto Nationals beat Montreal Tigers by a comfortable four-wicket margin.

The Tigers once again failed to ‘roar’ as they were limited to 136-9 at the expiration of the 20-overs while the Nationals responded nicely reaching 137-6 with 15 balls remaining. Their efforts were spearheaded by Chirag Suri who scored 52.

On Saturday, Toronto Nationals tasted defeat at the hands of Brampton Wolves after failing to get the respectable target of 222 from the 20-overs set by Wolves.

Toronto Nationals, in the first of their of two games over the weekend, reached 211-7 when the overs ran out despite a pugnacious 51 from recently retired Indian star batsman Yuvraj Singh.

In Wolves’ innings, George Munsey top-scored with 66, which was laced with five sixes and three fours from only 43 deliveries.

And in the final contest over the weekend, Edmonton Royals humbled Winnipeg Hawks by a massive eight-wicket margin.

Winnipeg Hawks piled up a challenging 195-6 from the 20-overs while Royals surpassed the target for the loss of two wickets in the penultimate over.

Anshuman Rath, a hugely talented opening batsman from Hong Kong slammed an impressive 87 not out which included four sixes and five fours.

He was supported by Pakistan veteran batsman Mohammed Hafeez who weighed in with 52.

Earlier, Shamian Anwar hit an aggressive 62 while South Africa ace batsman JP Duminy chipped in with 48. Leg-spinner Shadab Khan snatched three wickets for 23 runs from four overs. Meanwhile, the play-off segment is scheduled for Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday before the two top teams collide in the championship schedule.