BRAMPTON: Harsh Thaker followed his 23-run cameo with a four-fer and powered Vancouver Knights to edge Toronto Nationals by 25 runs in the last group fixture of the ongoing GT20 Canada.
The Knights now face Surrey Jaguars in the first eliminator of the extravaganza on Friday.
Put into bat first, the Knights failed to put on a decent show with the bat and could accumulate 128/7 in the allotted 20 overs.
Knights’ dependable pair of Corbin Bosch and Mohammad Rizwan once again recovered the side from an early blow after Fakhar Zaman perished cheaply with just five runs on the board in the second over.
The pair batted cautiously and added 62 runs for the second wicket before Farhan Malik drew a much-needed breakthrough for the Nationals by trapping Bosch in his legs.
The right-handed batter could score 30 from 26 deliveries, laced up with five boundaries.
The Knights endured another blow to their batting expedition when another set batter Mohammad Rizwan fell in the next over after miscuing a slog sweep off Shahid Afridi.
He could score a run-a-ball 27 with the help of two boundaries and a six.
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Rizwan’s dismissal triggered a collapse in the Knights’ batting lineup which halted the flow of runs.
Harsh Thaker, however, launched a brief counterattack and bolstered the Knights’ total with a brisk cameo. His 18-ball 23 at the backend featured two boundaries and a six.
Sikandar Raza and Shahid Afridi bagged two wickets each while Faheem Ashraf and Farhan made one scalp each.
In response, the Nationals’ batting lineup failed completely and could only raise a paltry 103 before being bundled out in the 16th over.
The Nationals had a contrasting start to their run chase as their opening pair Nicholas Kriton and Hamza Tariq added 31 runs for the first wicket before the former perished in the fourth over.
Following his dismissal, the Nationals began to lose wickets at an alarming rate which eventually restricted them to 103 all out.
Top-order batter Darren Bravo offered insignificant resilience with a 26-ball 28 which included two sixes.
The next notable run-getters for the Nationals were Kriton (19), Tariq and Zaman Khan 14 each.
The victory propelled Vancouver Knights to finish second in the GT20 standings with nine points in seven matches while Toronto Nationals were knocked out of the tournament after finishing fifth.
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