Montreal Tigers. (Photo Source: Twitter)
Brampton, 23rd July: Day 4 of the third edition of Global T20 Canada witnessed an entertaining clash where the Montreal Tigers defeated Mississauga Panthers by seven wickets, while the second match of the day between Brampton Wolves and Surrey Jaguars ended in no result due to rain.
After electing to field first, Montreal Tigers immediately put Mississauga Panthers on the backfoot by dismissing their openers Tom Cooper (1) and ‘Universe Boss’ Chris Gayle (1) cheaply inside the opening two overs of the match. However, Azam Khan (26) and Navneet Dhaliwal (46) steadied Panthers’ innings with sensible knocks, but after the duo’s departure, the team once again struggled to find runs and also lost a wicket of their captain Shoaib Malik, who departed after scoring just two runs.
It was James Neesham (54*) who unleashed an unstoppable barrage towards the business end of the first innings. The all-rounder smashed an unbeaten half-century to help Mississauga Panthers post a respectable total of 140/6 in the allotted 20 overs. Meanwhile, Kaleem Sana emerged as the pick of the bowlers for Montreal Tigers as the pacer bagged three wickets and gave away just eight runs in his four overs.
Chasing the 141-run target, Montreal Tigers lost Muhammad Waseem (4) in the second over of their innings but the incoming batter Shakib Al Hasan (36) played aggressively right from the word go and smashed boundaries and sixes at will to help his side cross the 50-run mark inside five overs. Also, Chris Lynn played second fiddle to Shakib’s entertaining stroke-play early in the chase, before unleashing some big hits himself. After Shakib’s departure, Lynn anchored the innings and scored an unbeaten 64, while Sherfane Rutherford hit a blistering 27 runs to take their team home in just 15.5 overs and with seven wickets in hand.
The second match of the day saw Surrey Jaguars opt to field first and reduce Brampton Wolves to 50/3 in 7.2 overs before rain played spoilsport and brought a premature end to the game due to which both teams were forced to share a point each.