Global T20 Canada, Montreal Tigers vs Edmonton Royals, 9th Match: 5 Talking Points
In what was a must-win game for them, Montreal Tigers put up a spirited show. They fought really hard and clinched their first win of the tournament and stayed alive in this competition.
After being inserted into bat by Edmonton Royals, the Tigers lost their top three inside the powerplay. But a resurrecting and fighting half-century from Moises Henriques and a small 22-run cameo from Najibullah Zadran pushed the score to 129 in 20 overs.
In reply, EDR replicated MNT’s start as they lost three early wickets and were reduced to 40/3. Luke Ronchi scored a quick-fire 30 before departing and leaving the score at 60/4.
Kevin O'Brien and Shaiman Anwar tried resurrecting the innings but once the former perished, it was a procession that went on and stopped only when they were bowled out. Peter Siddle took 4 wickets, while Lasith Malinga and Kevin Cooper took two wickets apiece in a win that was fashioned by the bowlers.
EDR and MNT are now tied at 2 points but the Royals have a game in hand.
#5 Montreal Tigers’ opening partnership fails once again
Apart from the 51, they scored against CWI B Team, Dwayne Smith and Sunil Narine have not performed well as an opening duo. They’ve registered to ducks and 19 (today) apart from that 51. And that might be one of the reasons why MNT have struggled in this tournament.
In fact, their individual performances haven’t been great as well. Narine has scored 71 in 4 innings and has often got starts but has failed to convert them. Smith on the other hand, looks woefully out of touch. He’s registered a couple of ducks and has score 16 and 8 in the other two innings.
In this game, both batsmen were cautious before Narine nicked one to the keeper off Sohail Tanvir to end the opening stand which was worth 19. Smith followed him soon as he was caught at cover and gave Wayne Parnell his first wicket.