Thanks to an all-round performance from Romario Shepherd, Toronto Nationals recorded a comfortable five-wicket win against Brampton Wolves in Qualifier 2 on Saturday to advance to Sunday’s showpiece clash of the fourth edition of the Global T20 Canada. Toronto will face defending champions Montreal Tigers in the title clash.
Asked to bat first on a difficult wicket, Wolves took advantage of an unbeaten half-century from Nick Hobson to post a challenging total of 141/8 in their 20 overs. The Australian scored 51 runs off 34 deliveries with five boundaries and two sixes punctuating his challenging innings.
In reply, openers Unmukt Chand and Colin Munro put together an opening partnership of 57 runs in 33 deliveries to lay the foundation for Toronto’s victory.
The Wolves got off to a slow start, with captain David Warner (13) and fellow opener Kobe Herft (1) taking a cautious approach. But they lost their first wicket fairly early on when Herft was bowled out by former Australia player Jason Behrendorff in the third over.
The biggest blow came in the next over when Warner, who was trying to force the pace, was caught leg-before attempting to play a Romario Shepherd delivery towards the netting side. Jack Jarvis (20) and Beau Webster (8) tried to get the innings back on track before the latter misjudged a slower ball from Canadian pacer Jatinderpal Matharu but Rassie van der Dussen put in a superb fielding effort in the deep to catch a huge skier.
Matharu struck again in his next over, this time sending Jarvis back to the dugout to leave the Wolves struggling at 57/4 in the tenth over. However, Hobson led the way as Brampton’s batsmen staged a solid comeback despite losing regular wickets along the way.
Shepherd was the most successful among Toronto’s bowlers with an average of 4/32. Matharu took two wickets.
Toronto’s chase got off to a flying start with openers Unmukt Chand (19) and captain Colin Munro (36) scoring at a healthy rate before the former misjudged a delivery from Brampton pacer Andrew Tye.
From there, Brampton’s players picked up wickets regularly, but despite that, Toronto’s batsmen continued to score at a steady pace.
Mohammad Nawaz (24 not out) and van der Dussen (14) brought Toronto within sight of the target before the latter attempted to latch onto a Beau Webster delivery only to deliver an inside edge to the stumps.
However, Nawaz continued to encourage the bowlers down low and Toronto crossed the line quite comfortably with 10 balls still to go. Shepherd (10 not out) got the winning runs in style, smashing Akhil Kumar on two consecutive overs.
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