Who is Kaleem Sana? 5 interesting facts about Montreal Tigers seamer who took 4/13 in GT20 Canada clash vs Toronto Nationals
Kaleem Sana bowled a match-winning spell of 4/13 in yesterday's GT20 Canada match between Montreal Tigers and Toronto Nationals. Playing for Montreal, the left-arm fast bowler bagged four wickets, including a hat-trick, to help his team beat the Nationals by seven wickets.
Despite having the likes of Colin Munro, Unmukt Chand, Andries Gous, Roston Chase, and Mohammad Nawaz in their batting lineup, Toronto Nationals managed only 52 runs. Sana dismissed Chand, Chase and Nawaz to record a hat-trick, and he completed his four-wicket haul with the scalp of Saad bin Zafar.
Unsurprisingly, Kaleem Sana won the Man of the Match award for his spell. In this listicle, we will look at five interesting facts to know about the left-arm fast bowler.
#1 Kaleem Sana was born in Rawalpindi
Sana hails from the Rawalpindi city of Punjab in Pakistan. He was born on January 1, 1994, and he even played domestic cricket in Pakistan before switching to Canada.
So far, he has played eight ODIs and 19 T20Is for Canada. It is pertinent to note that the left-arm pacer has a couple of four-wicket hauls in T20I cricket as well.
#2 Kaleem Sana hit Naseem Shah for a 6 in 2024 T20 World Cup
Two months ago, Sana represented Canada in the 2024 T20 World Cup. Canada won one of their four group matches, while they gave former champions Pakistan a run for their money in the dead-rubber contest of Group A.
Sana played against his home country in that game. While he could not take any wickets, he scored an unbeaten 13, which included a six over deep backward point against ace pacer Naseem Shah.
#3 Kaleem Sana once shared the dressing room with Babar Azam and Ahmed Shehzad
When Sana was just 15 years old, the PCB named him in the Pakistan U-19 squad for the 2010 U-19 World Cup. He did not play any matches due to injury, but that squad featured some current superstars of the Pakistan team.
Current Pakistan senior team captain Babar Azam was present in that team along with star batter Ahmed Shehzad, spinner Usman Qadir and current USA player Hammad Azam.
#4 Kaleem Sana played a huge role in Canada's 2024 T20 World Cup qualification
Canada qualified for a T20 World Cup for the first time in 2024. They qualified after defeating Bermuda in the Americas region qualifying tournament, which happened in October 2023.
Sana was the hero in the final match. He bowled a dream spell of 3/4, helping Canada bowl Bermuda out for just 93 runs. The organizers awarded the Man of the Match award to Sana for his fine spell.
#5 Kaleem Sana won GT20 Canada 2019 with Winnipeg Hawks
Back in 2019, Sana lifted the GT20 Canada trophy as a member of the Winnipeg Hawks team. Big names of T20 cricket like JP Duminy, Dwayne Bravo, Chris Lynn, Umar Akmal, and Rayad Emrit turned up for the Hawks that season.
Five years later, Sana is playing for the Montreal Tigers now. Even the Montreal squad features match-winners like Azmatullah Omarzai, Tim Seifert, Sherfane Rutherford, and Corbin Bosch. It will be interesting to see if Montreal can win the trophy.