The Toronto Sixers successfully defended their Canada Super60 Cricket League women’s title Saturday night at B.C. Place in Vancouver, beating the previously undefeated Vancouver Warriors by six wickets with three balls to spare.
Chasing a target of 85, the Sixers had scored just 27 runs and lost three wickets by the halfway mark before Ella McCaughan scored 36 not out off 20 balls to turn the tide. The win avenged a seven-wicket loss to Vancouver earlier in the tournament.
Earlier in men’s play, the Mississauga Masters beat the Toronto Sixers by 92 runs to finish the round robin with a 5-0 record.
Both matches aired live on the debut of CBC Sports Primetime, CBC’s new weekly flagship sports show hosted by Andi Petrillo.
Canada Super60 Cricket League women’s final: Vancouver Warriors vs. Toronto Sixers
The Canada Super60 league features a short-form version of cricket known as T10. Matches last about 90 minutes, with each team facing up to 60 balls — 10 overs of six balls each. An innings ends early if 10 batters are dismissed. The first team to bat sets a total that the second team must surpass to win the match.
The league, in its second season, has a six-team men’s competition and a three-team women’s competition, with every match played at B.C. Place. Rosters blend Canadian players with international stars such as West Indies great Kieron Pollard and South Africa’s Marizanne Kapp.
EXPLAINED | Canada Super60 cricket explained, in 60 seconds
In the women’s final, Vancouver won the coin toss and chose to bat, racing out to 24 runs without losing a wicket after three overs.
Then the innings fell apart. Toronto ran out four batters, three of them with help from wicketkeeper Bess Heath, and Indu Barma got Kapp out after Kapp had scored 16 — the first time the Vancouver captain had been dismissed all tournament.
Sophia Smale and Amarpal Kaur took two wickets each, and Vancouver lost its last four wickets on the final four balls of the innings to finish at 84/9. Sophie Reid led the scoring with 35 off 28 balls.
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Toronto’s reply started badly. Heath and captain Mady Villiers were both gone inside three overs, and by the halfway mark the Sixers needed 58 off the last 30 balls, more than 11 runs an over.
McCaughan, named player of the match, changed that in one over. She hit Mannat Hundal for a six and three fours in a 21-run eighth over, leaving the Sixers needing 16 off 12 balls. Barma, who had dismissed Kapp, added a six in the ninth and finished 18 not out.
Kapp, who had left the field for treatment after colliding with the LED boards while chasing one of McCaughan’s sixes, returned to bowl the final over, and Barma hit the winning runs off the third ball of that over.
Toronto received the Sana Mir Trophy, named this year after the former Pakistan captain.
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In the men’s match, Alex Lees set the tone for Mississauga, hitting 70 runs off 24 balls with six fours and six sixes. He and George Munsey combined for 98 runs before Munsey was caught off Abdul-Raheem Toppin’s bowling in the sixth over.
Toronto’s Nicholas Pooran, a wicketkeeper-batter who doesn’t usually bowl, then took two wickets, including Lees’s, as Mississauga slipped to 130 for four. Captain David Wiese’s 23 off eight balls lifted the Masters to 166/5.
Toronto’s chase was effectively over almost as soon as it began. Kaleem Sana took two wickets without conceding a run in the opening over. Wiese then dismissed Pooran and Daniel Sams on consecutive balls, and Saad Bin Zafar did the same to Andries Gous and Shadley van Schalkwyk an over later. By the halfway mark, the Sixers (2-3) had scored just 31 runs and lost seven wickets.
Zafar took three wickets while giving up just two runs, Wiese took three while giving up nine, and Sana took two while giving up three and also made the catches that removed Pooran and Van Schalkwyk. Sana was named player of the match.
Canada Super60 Cricket League: Mississauga Masters vs. Toronto Sixers
Pollard, Toronto’s captain, provided the late highlight, hitting four sixes in a 26-run ninth over off Saif Zaib and finishing 40 not out off 24 balls, but the Sixers ended at 74/9.
The two teams will face off again in the semifinals on Sunday at 4:30 p.m. ET.
The defending champion Brampton Blitz (3-2) will play the Vancouver Anchors (4-1) in the second semifinal at 7 p.m. ET, with the final set for the same day at 11:30 p.m. ET. Watch live coverage of the tournament on CBCSports.ca and CBC Gem.
CBC Sports Primetime will feature major sporting events, professional women’s sports and unmatched coverage of Canada’s high-performance athletes as they compete at home and around the world, in Olympic and Paralympic sport. Other featured events in October include the Grand Slam of Curling and ISU Figure Skating Grand Prix.
