Rassie van der Dussen clinical batting helped Vancouver Knights to register their second successive victory.
Montreal Tigers’ skipper Lasith Malinga called the coin’s side right and asked Vancouver Knights to bat first. Peter Siddle provided Tigers a wonderful start with a wicket of Knights’ captain Chris Gayle(04) in his very first over. Evin Lewis(16) was hitting the ball hard and far with 2 sixes before getting out off Malinga. Chadwich Waltons(05) tried to take on Nepal’s young leggie, Lamichhane and lost his wicket. Then, 58 runs partnership between Rassie van der Dussen and Babar Hayat (20) brought back Knights’ into the match. Where, wickets were falling from other end, Dussen continued his magnificent inning and helped his side to post the competitive total of 166 runs in inscribed 20 overs, losing 6 wickets. Dussen smashed unbeaten 83 runs from 56 balls. He slammed 6 fours and 5 sixes in his match defining inning. Lasith Malinga picked up maximum 3 wickets for Tigers followed by 2 wickets for Peter Siddle. Nepal’s young sensational Sandeep Lamichhane also managed to pick up a wicket in his wonderful spell of 4 overs, expensing just 19 runs off it.
In response, Tigers failed to reach the target and handed a comfortable 18 runs victory to Knights. It’s a second consecutive victory for Knights and third consecutive loss for Tigers. Reputable openers, Dwayne Smith and Sunil Narine came out to open the inning for Tigers but both of them failed to stand in their height. Smith (00) was first one to left the crease, whose stump was uprooted by Tim Southee in the very first ball of the second inning. Narine hinted for blistering cameo but he couldn’t carry it for long. 2 fours and a six summed up his 6ball- 14 runs inning. Moises Henriques and George Worker looked comfortable there and tried to bring Tigers back on the match. They shared maximum 64 runs stand for 3rd wicket. Worker scored 43 runs off 33 balls with 4 fours and a six. His deputy Henriques contributed worthy 40 runs from 34 balls with the help of 3 fours and sixes respectively. Tigers were at (91-3) through half-way stage but rest of batsmen like Zimbabwean Sikandar Raza (06), Afghanistan’s Najibullah Zadran (00) and Windies’ wicket-keeper batsman, Denesh Ramdin (14), failed to contribute. Hence, Tigers lost their last 8 wickets for 57 runs. For Knights, Classy Tim Southee and Saad Bin Zafar picked up maximum 3 wickets. Sheldon Cottrell also managed to pick up vital two wickets. Fawad Ahmed and Andre Russell also chipped in with a wicket each.
