Vancouver Knights demolish West Indies B in Global T20 final
The Vancouver Knights have stamped their name in T20 history after they handed down a seven-wicket thrashing to the West Indies B team in the inaugural Global T20 Canada on Sunday at the Maple Leaf King City Ground with 15 balls to spare.
Saad Bin Zafar hit an unbeaten 79 to help the Chris Gayle-led Vancouver Knights clinch victory. Vancouver reached 148-3 with 15 balls to spare in reply to West Indies B’s 145 all out in 17.4 overs.
Zafar plundered eight boundaries and three sixes in his match-winning 48-ball innings. Zafar and Rassie van der Dussen joined with Vancouver in trouble at 22-
West Indies B batsman Nicolas Pooran bats during the Global T20 Canada final
3, and with Gayle already back in the pavilion for just two runs.
Zafar and van der Dussen advanced Vancouver to 100-3 in 13.1 overs with the run-rate down to one-a-ball, and shared an overall fourth-wicket stand of 126.
Van der Dussen hit the winning boundary to finish 44 not out off 41 balls.
Zafar hit 14 runs – a six and two fours – off the last three balls of the 11th over by Guyanese Sherfane Rutherford – and a further two boundaries against Derval Green (2-20) in the next over as the run chase began to look comfortable.
Earlier, West Indies B struggled with the bat after losing the toss in the last game of the six-team competition. Brandon King and Rutherford went back cheaply. Rutherford, who hit a scintillating 134 not out in the first Qualifier match against the same opponents, failed to reproduce that innings, as he was taken for 14. All-rounder Fabian Allen provided the only serious resistance with a 23-ball 41, including three fours and three sixes.
Jamaica-born Sheldon Cottrell took 4-29 for Vancouver and leg-spinner Fawad Ahmed 3-24.
The tournament in Canada brought together some of the most exciting players in the T20 format, the quickest version of international cricket. The drawcards included Australians Steve Smith and David Warner, who are serving 12-month bans from international cricket imposed by their national association for their involvement in a ball-tampering scandal in South Africa in March.
