Montreal Tigers vs Edmonton Royals, Global T20 Canada 2019, Today Match Prediction 31 Jul 2019

mnt vs edr Match Prediction & Analysis

Two teams at the wrong end of results, one team at the bottom of the table, the other has the lowest net run rate. The Montreal Tigers and Edmonton Royals will be looking to shake off the disappointment and try to get back on a winning run before it is too late.

The Montreal Tigers have had two embarrassing performance, getting all out for 101 and lost by 10 wickets. The next match they were lucky to get a point after conceding 276 to the Chris Gayle led rampaging Vancouver Knights. The bowling has been listless and other than the one innings by Sunil Narine in the shortened game, the batting does not have much to show either.

The Edmonton Royals are currently bottom of the table after having lost both of their games played so far. However, the Royals will be disappointed to not get any points after being in with a chance to win both games at some point before squandering their chances.

TEAMS PREVIEW

Montreal Tigers Preview

The Montreal Tigers are in a bad place with the batting not firing and the bowling leaking runs all over the place. Ish Sodhi’s leg-spin destroyed their batting in their game against the Brampton Wolves while George Munsey, Lendl Simmons, and Chris Gayle annihilated their bowling in games against Wolves and the Vancouver Knights. The thunderstorm warning which ended the game prematurely against the Knights means they got themselves a lucky, undeserved point. 

The batting relies heavily on the shoulders of Sunil Narine, who was the main man responsible in them winning their first game. They also started well against the Wolves before the middle order collapse to the Brampton’s spin attack. The Tigers will look for better support to Sunil Narine with the likes of Kyle Coetzer, Anton Devcich and George Bailey needing to raise their game. They tried strengthening their batting by getting in Dinesh Chandimal to shore up the middle order. The bowling attack relies mostly on Sean Abbot who had a horror show against the Knights and Sunil Narine. They might bring in Fawad Ahmed for international batsmen and would expect Nikhil Dutta to pick up a couple of wickets and contribute to the bowling attack.

Montreal Tigers Predicted Playing XI:

Kyle Coetzer, Sunil Narine, Ruvindu Gunasekera, Dinesh Chandimal, Anton Devcich, George Bailey (c), Matthew Cross (wk), Nikhil Dutta, Mohammad Naveed, Dillon Heyliger, Sean Abbott

Edmonton Royals Preview

The Edmonton Royals will be disappointed that they have not registered a point on the board after two games considering the situations they have been in and the strength of the squad. They will expect their experienced international contingent to take up more responsibility and take the team home. Faf du Plesis has had starts in the tournament but hasn’t gone on to make a big score and will look forward to amending it. All-rounders present in the Royals team will look to contribute with both bat and ball and make a telling contribution.

Mohammed Hafeez will be expected to open the bowling against Narine and will look to keep things quiet in the powerplay. Shadhab Khan will look to capitalize on the Tigers weakness against leg-spin and will fancy picking up a few wickets. The pace bowling, big hitting all-rounders James Neesham and Ben Cutting will look to contribute with some lusty blows at the end of the innings and pick up crucial wickets. The pair of Navneet Dahliwal and Richie Berrington will look to provide brisk starts for the strong middle order to capitalize on.

Weather Conditions

The drop-in pitches have settled out and have now really turned into batting paradises. Scores above 200 are routinely scored and chased down with ease and the bowlers have had a hard time. The spinners have found some purchase but the big bats and the small grounds have proven to be very difficult to contain. We seem to have been lucky missing the rains on the reserve day and should be back to great weather for cricket and hopefully no more interruptions.

Venue

The CAA center has so far proven to be a wonderful host with high scoring games, lot of boundaries and brilliant innings. The short boundaries have meant a lot of entertainment to the crowds but not so much for the bowlers. And if the weather stays as expected, there should be even more exciting games.

Toss: To Bowl

Chasing has been the go to option for all captains after winning the toss. The team chasing has won 5 out of the 7 games and so it does not look like the trend of winning the toss and bowling first is going to stop anytime soon. The batting pitches and the small grounds have ensured that no total is safe and the batsmen will be confident to chase down any total.