Toronto Nationals beat Montreal Tigers to clinch fourth season of Global T20 Canada

Toronto Nationals dominated with both bat and ball to dethrone defending champions Montreal Tigers by 8 wickets in an engrossing final to be crowned the winners of the fourth season of the Global T20 Canada on Sunday.

Toronto Nationals thus clinched their maiden title in North America’s premier T20 competition. Canada's Prime Minister Justin Trudeau also visited the Global T20 Canada venue during the league and met the management of Montreal Tigers, and then he was presented with a jersey.

Toronto skipper Colin Munro won the toss and saw his decision to field first vindicated spectacularly as Montreal suffered a batting collapse to only manage a paltry total of 96/9 in their 20 overs.

Andries Gous then came up with a match-winning half-century to ensure a rather one-sided victory for Toronto Nationals. The innings was even more remarkable because he had suffered a broken finger, a short while after arriving at the crease. But the USA international fought through the pain to remain unbeaten on 58 runs off 49 balls and ensure that Toronto Nationals secured victory spectacularly.

The challenging batting conditions at the TD Stadium in Brampton were rendered even more difficult by a spell of heavy rain that delayed the toss by a couple of hours.

Australian pacer Jason Behrendorff made good use of the conditions to produce a superb display of swing bowling for remarkable figures of 3/8 in his four overs. That triggered a batting collapse in the Montreal top order and put Toronto firmly in the driver’s seat.

The Tigers suffered their first blow quite early with Toronto pacer Romario Shepherd sending opener Praveen Kumar back to the pavilion in the second over.

Montreal suffered a double blow in the very next over as Jason Behrendorff dismissed Gerhard Erasmus (2) and Tim Seifert (0) off consecutive deliveries.

Chris Lynn (3) did not stick around too long either as the Montreal skipper tried a wild slog off Behrendorff only to offer an easy top edge to Toronto wicketkeeper Unmukt Chand.

Sherfane Rutherford (1) went back almost as soon as he arrived, offering an easy catch off Junaid Siddiqui’s bowling to leave the Tigers in deep trouble with half their batting line-up back in the dugout before the end of the power play.

However, Corbin Bosch (35) and Jaskaran Singh (16) got together to add 46 runs between them and ensure that the Tigers’ innings lasted the full 20 overs.

The Toronto chase was off to a poor start as skipper Colin Munro was trapped leg before for nought by Azmatullah Omarzai off the second ball of the opening over. Bosch bowled fellow opener Unmukt Chand (4) in the next over to raise hopes of a strong fightback by the Tigers.

However, if the Montreal fans were hoping for a turnaround by their team, Andries Gous and Rassie van der Dussen (30 not out) ensured that they would be severely disappointed with an unbeaten partnership of 85 runs that powered the Nationals over the line without any further hiccups.

Toronto Nationals’ Romario Shepherd was adjudged the bowler of the tournament for his 14 wickets while Brampton Wolves’ wicketkeeper-batter George Munsey was named the batter of the tournament for topping the charts with 218 runs. 

Canadian youngster Dilpreet Bajwa, who represented the runners-up Montreal Tigers, was named the Emerging Player of the Tournament, while Toronto Nationals’ UAE import Junaid Siddique was awarded the Player of the Tournament.