ANTON Devcich struck a destructive 92 not out to lead Toronto Nationals to an opening day victory over Vancouver Knights by six-wickets in the inaugural Global T20 Canada, at the Maple Leaf Cricket Club Ground.

The two sides representing Canada’s most famous cities were led by former West Indies captains, Daren Sammy, and Chris Gayle, and it was Sammy who won the toss and elected to first field on the small venue and pitch, which neither side knew whether winning or losing toss had an added advantage.

The first six over power play period saw a score of 53 for 2 with both Gayle (17) and Chadwick Walton (8) dismissed and gave Toronto an early hint that their decision was being vindicated.

It almost got better in the eight over when Evin Lewis on 48 was dropped at long-off by Steve Smith off Kieron Pollard’s bowling.
Lewis immediately started to make them pay, first by launching avalanches of sixes as he dominated a 79 run fourth-wicket partnership with South African Rassie Van der Dussen (25).

When joined by his West Indian team mate Andre Russell, it became a six hitting contest between the duo, as Vancouver Knights eased past 200 leaving the Toronto National bowlers helpless just hoping they would mistime one of their shots.
Only Canadian spinner Nikhil Dutta held his own with impressive figures of 4-0-26-2 and Steve Smith singled him out for particular praise, comparing his bowling style to Sunil Narine in the post-match press conference.

In the chase, it became clear the pitch was allowing batsmen to play their shots and the 200 score could be chased depending on potential good batting by Toronto Nationals.
The nationals suffered a bad start, however when New Zealand’s Tim Southee, bowled Hong Kong’s Nizakat Khan in the first over with a beautifully pitched outswing delivery, that has dismissed many batsman worldwide with in his illustrious career to date.

At this point, the moment many were waiting for arrived as Smith walked to the middle.
Charles (30) did his job of helping Toronto Nationals getting off to a flyer in power plays, before he was out caught at deep mid-wicket mistiming an attempted six, which allowed Smith to not have any immediate pressure to score fast from the get go.

Afterwards, Smith took charge during a 91-run third wicket alliance with Devcich showing hints of the kind of form that aided Australia in their recent Ashes series win against England, before he was stumped by leg-spinner and countryman Fawad Ahmed.

This partnership gave Toronto the perfect base to launch with big hitter, Pollard and Sammy to come. But despite Pollard being dismissed cheapy, it was Devcich who showed his muscle notably, hitting Russell for three sixes in the 19th over, before Sammy finished things off by hitting Canadian fast bowler Jeremy Gordon for a straight six.