Montreal Tigers vs Edmonton Royals Preview: Tigers in search of the elusive first win
Montreal Tigers will be looking for their first win of the Global T20 Canada 2018 when they face Edmonton Royals in the ninth game of the tournament at the Maple Leaf Cricket Ground on July 4.
Tigers have lost all three matches they have played so far, with none of their batsmen scoring a fifty so far. While the Royals thrashed Toronto Nationals in their first match, they then lost to the CWI B Team in their second game.
Montreal Tigers
Tigers have made a bad start to the Global T20 Canada despite Lasith Malinga's bowling. The Montreal skipper has been their stand-out performer - claiming seven wickets from the first three matches. He took 2/19 in the first game, 2/32 against the CWI B Team and then claimed a productive 3/41 against Vancouver Knights.
The experienced Australian bowler Peter Siddle has four wickets in two outings, which began with a 2/33 against the CWI B Team and then 2/28 against Vancouver. While Nepalese bowler Sandeep Lamichhane was afforded a second chance against Vancouver Knights after conceding 57 runs in his first game, and he took full advantage as he returned with figures of 1/19 from his four overs.
In the batting department, no Montreal batsman has passed 50 yet - Sikandar Raza came closest when he fell for 48 against the CWI B Team to follow up from his quick-fire 30 in the opening match. Moises Henriques is their top run-scorer so far, however, with 89 from the first three games including a 34-ball 40 against Knights.
As the only side without a win to their name, they will be looking to change that when they take on the fourth-placed Royals.
Montreal Tigers Probable Playing 11: Dwayne Smith, Sunil Narine, Sandeep Lamichhane, Moises Henriques, George Worker, Peter Siddle, Sikandar Raza, Dinesh Ramdin (WK), Lasith Malinga (C), Najibullah Zadran and Ashley Nurse.
Edmonton Royals
Edmonton started their GT20 Canada campaign in style against Toronto Nationals as they reached their target of 170 to win with five overs to spare. While against Cricket West Indies B, they suffered a blip as batsman struggled to continue the same free-scoring form and managed just 155. Then their bowlers had no answer to Fabian Allen's sensational 30-ball 75 as eventually lost by three wickets with two overs to spare.
Andre Fletcher top-scored in the first match with an unbeaten 68 from 39 balls, while in second match it was Kevin O'Brien who starred with his quickfire 49 lifting Edmonton to a decent total after they struggled with the run-rate earlier on. With the ball, South African Wayne Parnell claimed 2/24 in the first match and 1/24 last time out. Mohammad Irfan has conceded just 42 runs from his eight overs so far while picking up two wickets as well.
Edmonton Royals Probable Playing 11: Shahid Afridi (C), Luke Ronchi (WK), Andre Fletcher, Agha Salman, Mohammad Irfan, Wayne Parnell, Farhaan Behardien, Shaiman Anwar, Sohail Tanvir, Kevin O'Brien and Hassan Khan.