Global T20 Canada, Vancouver Knights vs CWI B Team, 14th Match: 5 Talking Points

In a clash between the table-toppers, CWI B Team suffered their first loss of the tournament as they fell short in pursuit of Vancouver Knights’ 175.

CWI B Team who are sitting pretty at the top of the points table won the toss and opted to field first. The Knights got off to a good start as Evin Lewis and skipper Chris Gayle put on 50 for the first wicket.

But Lewis’ dismissal put the brakes on as CWIB bowlers bowled tight and didn’t allow the big hitters to get away. Gayle scratched his way to 63 before Andre Russell came in and scored a quickfire 32 to lift the score to 175.

In reply, CWI B Team lost 4 wickets in the powerplay and were reduced to 50/4. Kavem Hodge and Fabian Allen shared a 71-run stand reviving the hopes but once they were dismissed, it all fell away for the table toppers.

It was their first loss in this tournament and despite that, they advance to the next round as the best team of the tournament.

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#5 An up and down powerplay

Vancouver Knights haven’t had the best opening partnerships in this tournament. Chris Gayle and Evin Lewis have had stands of 30, 0 and 7 in the first three games. However, both of them strung together a good 50-run opening stand, giving the Knights a strong start.

They did get off to a slow start as Gayle played 10 balls for one in the first two overs. Kavem Hodge and Derval Green bowled tight lines and gave nothing away. But both Gayle and Lewis exploded in the next three overs as they scored 43 runs between overs two-five.

Then came the final over of the powerplay where the CWI B Team pulled it back again. They got rid of Lewis and Chadwick Walton as the Knights reached 55/2 at the end of the six-over mark.

Both teams had their moments in the powerplay and it did end on pretty much even terms with CWIB getting a couple of wickets and VCK scoring 55.

#4 Chris Gayle’s sluggish knock

Chris Gayle has looked out of sorts and woefully out of form in recent times

Chris Gayle has looked out of sorts and woefully out of form in recent times. After his hundred in the early part of the IPL, he’s found it tough to get going.

In the three innings he’s played in this tournament (before this game), he made just 21 runs in three innings. He looked scratchy in almost every innings.

However, Gayle scored a half-century as he hit 63 in VCK’s innings of 175. But it was a knock that wasn’t the most fluent.

He scratched around and didn’t quite look all that fluent at the crease. He started off by scoring just one off 10 deliveries but then he got a few out of the screws and reached 27 in 20 balls at the end of the powerplay.

Then came another lull when he just wasn’t able to find the boundary and his strike-rate went below 100 as he got to 37 off 39.

And then once again, he hit a good phase as he scored 22 runs off his next 10 balls before finally getting dismissed for a scratchy, sluggish 63 off 55 balls (which included five fours and four sixes).

#3 The big finish from Andre Russell and Babar Hayat

Hayat and Russell fetched 19 runs in the final over to give the Knights a flourishing finish

The Knights were in good stead when Gayle was starting to open his shoulders and Rassie van der Dussen was giving him good support.

But a few good overs and the wickets of both set batsmen helped CWIB pull things back. With two overs to go and only 140 on the board, Andre Russell and Babar Hayat cut loose.

In what was 10-ball 19th over, Russell struck a couple of sixes as Obed McCoy bowled three wides and a no-ball in that over.

And then in the final over, Hayat and Russell fetched 19 runs to give the Knights a flourishing finish.

The duo of Russell and Hayat shared an unbeaten 43-run partnership, out of which 35 came in the last two overs. Their efforts helped VCK get to 175 in their 20 overs.

#2 Kavem Hodge and Fabian Allen resurrect CWIB after early trouble

The Windies side was rattled early

In their chase of 176, the Windies side was rattled early. Despite a flurry of boundaries, they kept losing wickets.

Sherfane Rutherford was the first to go as he was involved in a huge mix-up with Shamar Springer and was eventually run out.

The latter hit three sixes before top-edging one off Tim Southee. Brandon King and Nicholas Pooran were out of successive deliveries as CWIB slumped to 50/4 before skipper Anthony Bramble went back to the dressing room trying to hoick one off Fawad Ahmed.

Kavem Hodge and Fabian Allen then got together and stitched a resurrecting stand of 71 for the sixth wicket to keep the table toppers in the game.

They rotated strike for large parts of the partnership before they went after Southee. They brought down the equation to 51 off the last five but both batsmen were dismissed in successive overs which killed the game.

#1 Sheldon Cottrell stars with the ball as VCK hand CWIB their first loss

Cottrell broke the back of the CWIB middle-order as he dismissed King and Pooran in the same over

The CWI B Team have been the best side of the tournament. They’ve found ways to win from difficult situations and won all four game before this one. But after the Knights put up 175, it was going to be tough chasing against a decent attack.

Sheldon Cottrell topped the bowling charts for VCK as he picked up a four-fer. He came into bowl in the sixth over and the Windies side were already 50/2.

Cottrell broke the back of the CWIB middle-order as he dismissed King and Pooran in the same over. He then came back and picked up a couple more wickets in his final over to finish with figures of 4/19.

CWIB were bowled out for 140 as they slipped to their first defeat of the tournament. Despite the loss, they topped the table with 8 points (4 wins and 1 loss).

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Can CWIB bounce back from their first loss in the tournament? Sound off your opinion in the comments section below!