Global T20 Canada, Montreal Tigers vs Vancouver Knights, 8th Match: 5 Talking Points

Montreal Tigers suffered their third loss in a row as they lost to Vancouver Knights and failed to chase down 167. After winning the toss, Lasith Malinga and co started off very well as VCK lost their top 3 early.

But a fine 83 from Rassie van der Dussen propelled the Chris Gayle-led side to a competitive total of 166. Apart from this knock of 83 from van der Dussen, none of the other batsmen could go past the score of 20. Lasith Malinga and Peter Siddle shared 5 wickets while the spinners Sunil Narine and Sandeep Lamichhane kept things really tight.

In reply, Tim Southee removed both the MNT openers in his opening spell but 40s from Moises Henriques and George Worker kept the Tigers in good stead. However, after the dismissal of these two batsmen, they lost a slew of wickets and eventually fell short by 18 runs.

The Tigers now need to both their remaining games and hope for other results to go their way to stand a chance to qualify for the next round.

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#5 Three failures in a row for Chris Gayle

The way Chris Gayle batted in the early stages of the IPL, the bowlers were ducking for cover. However, Gayle is now going through another slump where runs seem hard to come by. In his last 10 innings, he has failed to cross the 20-run mark on 9 occasions.

In this Global T20 Canada tournament, he started with a fluent looking 17 where he struck 2 fours and a six. He was then dismissed for a duck in the second game as he was worked over by USA pacer Ali Khan. And in this game again, he was out for just 4.

In this game against the Tigers, Gayle got off the mark straightaway as he edged one to the boundary off Malinga. But then he played out the entire first over and then fell trying to force the issue against Peter Siddle. Hence, it has not been a very good start to this tournament for the big Jamaican.

#4 Rassie van der Dussen’s solo act

Rassie van der Dussen

It is always special if you score half the team’s runs and more so if the next best score is 20. Rassie van der Dussen scored a superb 83 as his knock helped the Knights to get to a par total of 166.

Walking out to bat at 25/2 at the end of the 4th over, Dussen edged his first ball for four. He was a touch cautious at the start of his innings as the Knights for the second game in a row lost three early wickets. But when the opportunity was there for the taking, the South African didn’t hold back.

He got to fifty off 36 deliveries and after Andre Russell was dismissed in the 15th over, Dussen tried to take as much strike as possible and ended up with a fine knock of 83. In his 56-ball knock, he struck 6 fours and 5 sixes as he almost single-handedly took the Knights to a competitive total.

#3 Dream start for Tim Southee and the Knights

Rajasthan Royals v Royal Challengers Bangalore - IPL T20

New Zealand’s premier fast bowler Tim Southee played an important role in the Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) unit towards the end of the IPL season. In the first two games, he wasn’t quite effective as he was taken for runs. In both games, he conceded more than 40 in his quota of 4 overs.

However, in this game, he was right on the money from the start. He bowled a peach to dismiss Dwayne Smith on the first ball of the innings. It was an away curler that pitched around middle and off and hit the outer part of the off-stump as Smith failed to cover for the movement.

Moises Henriques and Sunil Narine clobbered 20 runs off Sheldon Cottrell to get the innings going. But Southee dismissed the dangerous-looking Narine with a short delivery and finished his first spell with figures of 2-0-8-2.

#2 The Henriques-Worker stand

BBL - Sixers v Stars

The Tigers lost both their openers Dwayne Smith and Sunil Narine inside 3 overs. But Moises Henriques and George Worker batted really well after that to put the innings back on track.

Henriques who walked out to bat in the first over struck a couple of boundaries in the first couple of overs but was largely looking to play the anchor role as he scored 22 off his first 21 balls. On the other hand, Worker had a flying start to his innings as he raced off to 17 in just 9 deliveries. The Tigers had reached 58/2 at the end of the powerplay and seemed to be in good stead.

The duo then rotated strike and also struck boundaries when the opportunity arose. However, the rousing stand was broken on the last ball of the 10th over as Fawad Ahmed dismissed his fellow countryman Henriques who was caught at deep mid-wicket.

The 64-run stand was broken and that wicket came against the run of play but it was a stand that put MNT back on track for the chase.

#1 MNT fall away in the back 10 to lose their third straight game

MNT

have

failed to put in a collective performance.

For the third game in a row, the Tigers’ batsmen failed to deliver and paid the price as they lost three straight games. Now need to win both their remaining games and also hope that other results work in their favour, for them to stand a chance of qualifying for the past this first round.

Moises Henriques and George Worker batted very well and with their 64-run stand, it did seem that MNT’s run chase was back on track. They had also got to 91 in the first 10 overs and the required run rate was just 7.6 for the back 10. However, the Lasith Malinga-led side lost a slew of wickets as they slumped to an 18-run defeat.

Henriques was out on the last ball of the 10th over. In the following over, MNT lost a couple more wickets as Canada left-arm spinner Saad Bin Zafar dismissed Sikandar Raza and Najibullah Zadran in the space of 3 balls. George Worker was then castled in the 14th over by Zafar and from then on, it was a procession as MNT lost their last four wickets for just 13 runs.