Jun 29, 2018
01:30 IST / 4:00 GMT
Maple Leaf North-West Ground - Kings City, Canada
The "Chance of Winning" Widget shows winning percentage depending upon live betting odds of teams participating in the match. The winning percentage is changed immediately when odds are updated.
Vancouver Knights are favorites to win
The first Global T20 Canada gets underway at the Maple Leaf Cricket Ground, King City, with Toronto Nationals facing Vancouver Knights in the inaugural match. Scheduled to start on June 28, the live action begins at 16:00 local time.
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Toronto Nationals captain Darren Sammy was equally happy to set a target or have his team chase during his stint as captain of PSL franchise Peshawar Zalmi. If he wins the toss, however, he does lean slightly towards fielding first.
Read on for team previews, betting tips, latest odds and match prediction for Toronto Nationals vs Vancouver Knights - Global T20 Canada.
Steve Smith's return to cricket is the stand-out news for Toronto Nationals, with the disgraced former Australia captain playing for the first time since his ban for his role in the ball-tampering scandal.
Smith and captain Darren Sammy are Toronto's marquee players, while Kieron Pollard and Kamran Akmal offer plenty of international and franchise T20 experience. Toronto also boast the top-rated Canadian player in the competition - 23-year-old off-spinner Nikhil Dutta having been their seventh-round pick.
Toronto boast a strong core of experienced Twenty20 international players, led by captain Darren Sammy - a former World Cup-winning captain with the West Indies. Sammy's most recent Twenty20 experience was the Pakistan Super League, where he captained Peshawar Zalmi to the final.
Kamran Akmal will be reunited with Sammy, meanwhile, having been Peshawar Zalmi's star player in that tournament. Akmal's 425 runs included four 50s and one unbeaten century. He also hit the competition's fastest 50 on his way to a 27-ball 77 in the final qualifier.
Steve Smith's return to cricket is also Toronto's gain, with the Australian having scored 472 runs in 15 innings at the 2017 IPL before the ball tampering scandal cost him his place at this year's edition.
Kieron Pollard's big-hitting ability is undoubted - he boasts a strike rate of 150.80 in T20 cricket, or an average of nine runs per over. His impact was muted during his stint with Mumbai Indians at the IPL, however - he will hope to bounce back after a string of low scores.
Kamran Akmal, Johnson Charles, Steve Smith, Nitish Kumar, Hussain Talat, Darren Sammy, Kieron Pollard, Rohan Mustafa, Kesrick Williams, Rumman Raees, Nikhil Dutta
Chris Gayle and Andre Russell were selected as Vancouver Knights’ two marquee players, and they added more big-hitting West Indian power to their batting line-up when they snapped up Evin Lewis in the third round of the player draft.
Tim Southee offers further international experience with the ball, while their Canadian contingent will be Saad Bin Zafar, Ruvindu Gunasekera, Srimantha Wijeratne, Salman Nazar and Jeremy Gordon.
Despite their heavy bias towards West Indian internationals, and the compulsory Canadian players, Vancouver are one of the most multi-national sides in this year’s competition with internationals from New Zealand (Southee), Hong Kong (Babar Hayat), Australia (Fawad Ahmed) and Bermuda (Kamau Leverock) also on their roster, alongside South African Rassie van der Dussen.
Chris Gayle and Evin Lewis opened the batting for the West Indies in their recent match against the ICC World XI at Lord’s, sharing an opening stand of 75 inside eight overs – Lewis hitting 58 from 26 balls.
Gayle averaged 40.88 in the IPL this season, including one century – the 21st of his T20 career. Lewis, meanwhile, scored 382 runs in 13 innings for Mumbai Indians. The two were also among the leading run scorers in last year’s Caribbean Premier League – Gayle scoring 375 runs and Lewis 355 for the St Kitts and Nevis Patriots. That included a blistering partnership of 129 in just seven overs to lead the team to a ten-wicket win against Barbados.
The top run scorer in that competition, however, was their new Vancouver Knights team-mate – Chadwick Walton having blitzed his way to 458 runs at an average of 41.63 and with a strike rate of 145.85.
With the ball, Tim Southee and Andre Russell both arrive on the back of their IPL stints – the latter having also impressed with the bat, and played a key role in the aforementioned West Indies vs World XI game.
Chris Gayle, Evin Lewis, Chadwick Walton, Babar Hayat, Kemau Leverock, Andre Russell, Ruvindu Gunasekera, Tim Southee, Sheldon Cottrell, Fawad Ahmed
Vancouver Knights' West Indies internationals and big-hitting batting line-up makes them favourites to win the inaugural game of the Global T20 Canada tournament. Bet365 are offering 1.72 on the Knights, while Toronto National are priced at 2.10.
One of the key phases of the game will be Vancouver's opening partnership - Chris Gayle and Evin Lewis have been destructive at the top of the order for St Kitts and for West Indies, and they are 1.80 to post a bigger opening partnership than Toronto's likely openers, Kamran Akmal and Johnson Charles. You can also get 1.72 on Vancouver posting the highest score after the power play. Given big-hitting Chadwick Walton is likely to be the next man even if Lewis and/or Gayle fail, it is well worth backing. (Toronto, by contrast, are 2.00 to post the highest opening partnership and 2.10 to score highest in the first six overs).
The first game of a new tournament means this is an unknow in many respects, but the experience, power and form on display at the top of the Vancouver Knights' batting order makes them favourites. If Lewis, Gayle and co fire, Vancouver will be difficult to stop.
Final Verdict: Back Vancouver Knights to beat Toronto Nationals at 1.72 with Bet365
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