Global T20 Canada 2024: Unmukt Chand, Shakib Al Hasan Star as Toronto Nationals & Bangla Tigers Register Convincing Wins

The third day of the Global T20 Canada 2024 witnessed two cracking encounters at the CAA Centre in Brampton as Bangla Tigers Mississauga recorded their first win of the season before Toronto Nationals made it two wins on the trot.

After the Shakib Al Hasan-led Bangla Tigers dished out a brilliant all-round effort to hand the Vancouver Knights a 22-run loss, Toronto Nationals came up with yet another disciplined bowling effort to comfortably beat the David Warner-led Brampton Wolves by 8 wickets.

Brampton Wolves' skipper David Warner's decision to bat at the toss, instantly backfired as Western Australian paceman Jason Behrendorff jolted the team with two wickets from two balls in the very first over, before Canada's star opener Aaron Johnson was caught inches short of his crease without facing a ball that left the side reeling at 5 for 3.

Romario Shepherd further dented the Wolves' inside the power-play by removing Scottish keeper-batter George Munsey before Beau Webster and Nick Hobson foughtback with a 40-run stand to take the Wolves past the 50-run mark by the 10th over of the innings.

However, the joy was shortlived for the Wolves once Hobson and Webster departed in quick succession before the lower order batters came up with handy cameos to take the side to 110.

For the Toronto Nationals, Junaid Siddiqui was the pick of the bowlers with three wickets while Behrendorff and Shepherd picked a couple each. Saad Bin Jafar and Roston Chase also chipped in with a wicket-a-piece.

In reply, Toronto Nationals were clinical in their approach, with former India U-19 World Cup-winning captain Unmukt Chand leading the pack with a calculative half century.

Chand, who slammed an undefeated 53 off 40 deliveries received great support from Rassie van der Dussen (25) with the pair forging together a 79-run second wicket stand to set the stage for a comfortable win despite losing skipper Colin Munro (11) cheaply.

Bangla Tigers open account

Earlier in the day, Bangla Tigers Mississauga dominated with both bat and ball to beat Vancouver Knights by 22 runs and register their first win of the 2024 edition of Global T20 Canada. They are now on 2 points from as many matches while Vancouver are winless after 2 games.

Asked to bat first, Bangla Tigers survived a few early jolts to post 152/7 in their 20 overs before veteran Bangladesh all-rounder and captain Shakib Al Hasan spearheaded the Tigers' bowling attack with 3/10 to restrict Vancouver to 130/6.

The Bangla Tigers rode on a spirited lower-order fightback led by Pakistan's Iftikhar Ahmed (50 not out) and notable contributions from Canadian all-rounder Pargat Singh (20), Afghanistan's Hazratullah Zazai (33) and West Indian Dilon Heyliger (27) to put up the fighting total.

Nepal leg-spinner Sandeep Lamichhane was the pick of the Vancouver bowlers with figures of 2/32. Mohammad Amir, Jeremy Gordon, Dwaine Pretorius and Paul van Meekeren also picked a wicket each.

The Vancouver chase never really took off as they lost wickets at regular intervals. Their innings started on a shaky note as an attempted extravagant shot by skipper Usman Khwaja saw a David Wiese delivery crash into the stumps in the very first over.

The second wicket fell in the next over as Munir Ahmad was trapped lbw by Shoriful Islam. It all went downhill for Vancouver from there on. A defiant half-century by Canada all-rounder Harsh Thaker (79 not out off 67) was the only saving grace for the Vancouver innings.