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Canada opened the ICC T20 Americas World Cup qualifier with a comfortable win over the Caymans. Earlier hosts Bermuda upset pre-tournament USA favourites, beating them by 6 runs. Canada won the toss and chose to bat. An excellent century from man of the match Ravinderpal Singh (101 in 48 balls), with good support from Nitish Kumar (41) took Canada to 196/6 from their 20 overs. Ravinderpal Singh is Canada’s first ever T20I century maker

Romesh Eranga had the Caymans on the back foot right away with two wickets in his first over, and another in his second. Junaid Siddqui bowled the 5th over, and two run outs, and a leg before had the Cayman innings in tatters- 13/5. They did recover to make 112/7 from their 20 overs but an eighty four run win got Canada off to a great start.

Scorecard

Canada were well on their way to victory over Bermuda when rain stopped play with only 6 balls more needed to be bowled to make the match official. However the ponits are now split, and the match declared a no-result.

Bermuda elected to bat after winning the toss, and made a solid start until Dilon Heyliger dismissed both openers. Nikhil Dutta had Douglas caught to make the score 43/3 in the 10th over, at which point play was halted due to heavy rain. After a lengthy delay, play resumed with the Bermuda innings reduced to 16 overs. Canada bowled well to restrict Bermuda as they hit out in the final six overs, Eranga bowling a double wicket maiden for the 15th over, and Heyliger taking two more wickets in the 16th. Bermuda finished on 82/9.

The mens senior national team heads to Bermuda this week, aiming to secure a place in the ICC T20 World Cup Qualifier (Global) to be played in the United Arab Emirates in October 2019. The tournament involves the four countries that advanced from two 2018 Americas Qualifiers: Bermuda, Canada, Cayman Islands and USA, and Canada will need to finish in the top two to advance.

The tournament consists of a double round robin with games scheduled from August 18 until August 25.

Tournament Schedule

August 18: Bermuda v USA (AM); Canada v Cayman (15:00 local)

August 19: Bermuda v Canada (11:00 local); USA v Cayman (PM)

August 21: Bermuda v Cayman (AM); USA v Canada (15:00 local)

August 22: Cayman v Canada (11:00); USA v Bermuda (15:00 local)

August 24: Cayman v USA (AM); Canada v Bermuda (15:00 local)

August 25 Canada v USA (11:00); Cayman v Bermuda (PM)

Tonight’s Global T20 match between Montreal and Edmonton is being streamed live by TSN

This year’s Global T20 features higher Canadian participation and this was demonstrated in the opening match between last year’s champions, the Vancouver Knights, and the Toronto Nationals. Much of the attention was on the superstars- Yurav Singh, Brendon McCallum, Chris Gayle and Kieron Pollard but Canadian players played a major part in the match.

Rodrigo Thomas was joint top-scorer for the Toronto squad with 41, and Rizwan Cheema had Yurav Singh stumped in his only over. Saad Bin Zafar took 2/7 in two overs, as the Nationals made 159/5.

Another high profile player fell to a Canadian bowler, as Mark Montford bowled Chris Gayle- Toronto’s bowling attack featured three Canadians in the first four bowlers used – Montford, Jeremy Gordon and Salman Nazar. However the honours went to New Zealander Walton and south African van der Dussen who put on 126 to earn the Knights an 8 wicket win.

The Global T20 kicks off this Thursday (July 25, 2019) with the game between the Vancouver Knights, and Toronto Nationals in Brampton. The facility is in place, players are afrriving, and this year, expect to see more of our Canadian players on the field. To follow the tournament go to the Global T20 web page, or follow them on Facebook.

Quebec won the Eastern T20, after the final was rained out. They had won all their round-robin matches and thus had finished 4 points ahead of the other finalist, Nova Scotia.

Quebec had earlier beaten PEI in a high scoring game. Quebec had made 245/3, with Pratik Joshi recording Quebec’s third century of the tournament, 100 off 49 balls. PEI answered with 216/6, Satwinder Singh Baath making 104 from 48 balls.

The last round-robin game decided the other finalist- Nova Scotia were on 4 points with a net run rate of 0.36, and if either Newfoundland and Labrador or New Brunswick had a sufficiently large win they could theoretically overtake them. Newfoundland and Labrador won the toss and made the highest score of the tournament, 283, to give themselves a chance. Nick Baxter made 74, but all the top order bats contributed. The effective target then was a 145 win to overtake Nova Scotia, and despite their best efforts, they were unable to restrict New Brunswick to less than 139, who made 154/7 in their 20 overs.

The Eastern T20 got underway on Friday. In the opening match, hosts PEI beat New Brunswick, PEI’s first win in the tournament for a number of years. The second game saw Quebec defeat Nova Scotia – the highlight of this match was a stunning all round performance from Suresh Ramkissoon (pictured above), making 103 from 39 balls with 14 sixes, including at one point hitting the first five balls of an over for six- he failed to score off the sixth. Quebec made 210, and Nova Scotia fell 37 runs short – Suresh taking 5/27.

Newfoundland and Labrador’s 8 wicket win over PEI saw another good all round performance, Nick Baxter of NL following up 3 wickets with 82 not out. The final match of a busy day saw New Brunswick upset Nova Scotia, who had not lost to another of the Atlantic Provinces for a few years. New Brunswick’s Anmol Zakmi made 58, as they set Nova Scotia a target of 199. and 4 wickets from Saqib Shazad dismissed Nova Scotia for just 104.

The National T20 is underway at Maple Leaf CC, King City. Sixty of Canada’s best cricketers are in attendance, split into four teams, each containing a mix of national team players and cricketers selected for the high performance squad based on their performances in the regional T20 competitions. The tournament gives selectors an opportunity to evaluate players in match situations against top-quality opposition.