By Ravendra Madholall

GTA Strom captured the 2024 Canada Cup softball trophy on Sunday at Ashtonbee Park, Scarborough where the Legends (Over-50) category concluded.

GTA Strom defeated defending champions Toronto Blizzards by a nail-biting, 5-wicket margin with two balls to spare.

Blizzards took first strike at the invitation of GTA Storm and reached an inadequate 131-9 from the 20-overs while GTA Storm responded with 132-5.

Their victory chase was led by experienced campaigner and frontline batsman Ramo Malone with an unbeaten 38 which contained 5 fours from 36 balls.

Earlier, Toronto Blizzards lost in-form batsman and former Canada International skipper Sunil Dhaniram cheaply for 4 runs. The left-handed Dhaniram was in sublime form after scoring a century (110) in the preliminary round against Trophy Stall Lions of Guyana and 91 against New York Softball Cricket League.

Veteran all-rounder Jesh Parsnauth top-scored for Toronto Blizzards with a hard-fought 47 which included 3 sixes and 2 fours.

Canadian player and skipper Shiv Seeram also failed to make an impact with the bat only scoring 2 runs as left-arm bowler Richard Driffield grabbed 4-11 from his maximum four overs to be the most outstanding bowler for GTA Storm.

Driffield was named the Most-Valuable-Player for his impressive, bowling performance. He received a trophy, as did Malone for taking the best catch in the Legends Category. Dhaniram was voted as the top batsman with the most runs (247). The winning side also collected a trophy and CDs $4,000 for dethroning Toronto Blizzards.

In the Opening category, Softball Cricket Canada beat Titans of New York to lift that trophy. The hosts made 126-7 while Titans replied with 110-9 off 20-overs.

Unfortunately, in the Masters (Over-40) Division there was a no-result due to a controversy.

Meanwhile, President of the Ontario Twilight Softball Cricket League Azeem Khan expressed his appreciation to all the participating teams in each category. He also echoed similar sentiments to all the sponsors; special mention was made to Jennifer McKelvie, Deputy Mayor, Councillor, and Scarborough-Rouge Park for attending and supporting the tournament.

The League hosted the mega softball event for the second time and it was run for three consecutive days. The inaugural occasion was held in 2022.