KING CITY, Canada – Dwayne Bravo’s all-round performance and Rassie van der Dussen’s match-winning innings aided Winnipeg Hawks and Vancouver Knights, respectively, to secure victories Monday in day five of Global T20 Canada action at Maple Leaf Cricket Club.
Today’s results, in which both teams batting first won their respective match, breaks the early tournament trend where the teams chasing were predominantly ending up on the winning side.
Match 7: Toronto Nationals vs. Winnipeg Hawks
Toronto won the toss and sent the Hawks into bat and immediately struck an early blow, as Australia star David Warner (1), for the third straight match, departed early, run out brilliantly by New Zealander Anton Devcich.
However, the pair of West Indian Lendl Simmons and Australian Ben McDermott consolidated after Warner’s departure in a 77-run second wicket partnership.
But just as the duo were looking to get comfortable at the crease, they were dismissed in consecutive overs as Toronto slipped from 78/1 to 80/4 in the 11th over.
Simmons (44) was first to go, caught on the mid-wicket boundary. Next, Kesrick Williams had a double strike dismissing McDermott (25) caught & bowled and Bravo caught on the mid-wicket boundary, first ball.
Winnipeg captain Bravo entered and South African David Miller steadied proceedings with a quick-fire 45-run fifth wicket alliance. One notable highlight from this period was Toronto’s failed experiment using Australia star Steve Smith to bowl his leg-spin.
Bravo and Miller pounced on him immediately, with Smith conceding 34 runs in this two-over spell.
Chasing Winnipeg’s innings total of 164, Toronto’s had a bad start as the pace bowling trio of Americans Ali Khan and Kyle Philip along with West Indian Fidel Edwards claimed three early wickets on the pitch that was giving them bounce and seriously testing the batters back foot techniques.
Edwards who plies his trade in English county cricket with Hampshire bowled a brilliant spell of 4-1-8-2. He produced the delivery of the day as Smith fended off a lifting delivery to be caught at gully.
Despite Devcich (34) and Kieron Pollard (25) threatening vaguely, Toronto’s chase never had any real momentum.
Medium pacer Tion Webster played a key role in this with his four wickets, which included three in his first over of captain Daren Sammy, Muhammad Naveed (both without scoring) and Canadian Nikhil Dutta (5) of Toronto.
Summary Result: Winnipeg Hawks 164/6 in 20 overs (Lendl Simmons 44, Dwayne Bravo 41; Muhammad Naveed 2-29, Kesrick Williams 2-33) defeats Toronto Nationals 108 all out in 17.2 overs (Anton Devcich 34, Kieron Pollard 25; Tion Webster 4-22, Fidel Edwards 2-8, Dwayne Bravo 2-23) by 56 runs.
Match 8: Montreal Tigers vs. Vancouver Knights
KING CITY, Canada – South African Rassie van der Dussen’s knock played a key role in steadying Vancouver Knights win sending Montreal Tigers to their third straight loss of the tournament.
Despite scoring what was the slowest 50 of tournament so far in 36 balls, van der Dussen’s inning was crucial as it was 50 per cent of Vancouver’s eventual competitive total of 166.
The 29-year old had no regular support as Vancouver’s world-renowned big-hitting West Indies opening pair of Chris Gayle (4) and Evin Lewis (16) didn’t give the team a flying start, while all-rounder Andre Russel (13) didn’t provide his usual late innings performances of big sixes in the closing overs.
Similar to the day’s earlier game, quality fast bowling was on show once more and Vancouver’s new ball attack leader, New Zealand’s Tim Southee, dismissed Montreal’s West Indian opening pair of Dwayne Smith, first ball, and Sunil Narine (14), leaving Montreal on 27/2 in the third over.
A mini revival occurred during a 64-run third wicket partnership between the Trans-Tasman batters Moises Henriques (40) and George Worker (43). But after both were dismissed in consecutive overs in overs nine and ten Montreal lost its final seven wickets for 57 runs with Canadian Saad Bin Zafar of clinching three of those wickets in a solid spell of left-arm spin bowling.
Summary Result: Vancouver Knights 166/6 in 20 overs (Rassie van der Dussen 83; Lasith Malinga 3-41, Peter Siddle 2-28 defeats Montreal Tigers 148 all out in 19.4 overs (George Worker 43, Moises Henriques 40; Tim Southee 3-20, Saad Bin Zafar 3-21, Sheldon Cottrell 2-37) by 18 runs.