Ottawa Royals won the inaugural Montreal Cricket Association T-20 Day/Night and the Inter-City Championship held in Montreal over the last few weeks. In a very hard fought semi final between Ottawa Royals and Montreal Badshahs, the Badshahs scored 109 runs in their 20 overs. In reply the Royals were cruising to an easy victory when they suffered a collapse and needed 7 runs of two remaining balls with the last pair at the wicket. Delawar Ahmedzai of Royals dispatched the 5th ball of the last over for a huge six and took a single of the last ball to seal victory for the Royals.
In the other semi final between Montreal Lions and Toronto, the Lions easily defeated the Toronto team and set up the final between themselves and the Ottawa Royals.
In the final the Montreal Lions batted first and scored 109 runs in their 20 overs. The Royals started slow and lost two early wickets but some hard hitting and sensible batting from Ayub and Zain saw Royals home with 4 overs to spare.
The Royals received a cheque of $2500 for winning the tournament and the Lions received $1500 as the runner ups.
Inter-City Championship
The combined Montreal city team defeated Toronto in their game. The Ottawa Royals also won their game from Toronto. It set the stage for the final to be between Ottawa Royals and the Montreal City team. The Royals batted first and were lead by their captain Rajiv Bhatia who scored 59 and Ahmed Shah with 38. The Royals made 152 in their 20 overs. In reply Montreal City team, led by former Canadian player Qaiser Ali suffered some early losses and in the end fell short by 30 runs. The Ottawa Royals also won the Inter-City Championship.
It was a roaring success and the awards ceremony was attended by the City officials and many other dignitaries. The following were the tournament award winners:
Most Valuable Player: Vinod Thakur Montreal Lions
Best Batsman: Ayub Ahmedzai Ottawa Royals
Best Bowler: Manish Patel Montreal Badshahs
Man of the Match Final T-20 Ayub Ahmedzai Ottawa Royals
Man of the Match Inter-city Rajiv Bhatia Ottawa Royals