With an exceptional all-round show, Ravi Bopara helped Mississauga Masters beat Toronto Sixers by 10 wickets in a Canada Super 60 game.
Toronto Sixers posted 116-6 after Mississauga Masters captain Sikandar Raza won the toss and opted to field at the BC Place in Vancouver. For Toronto, Alex Hales smashed a 15-ball 29, while captain Dan Christian hit a 19-ball 38.
At 46-1 after four overs, Toronto seemed set for a large total when Bopara came on to bowl. After Navneet Dhaliwal ran a single, Bopara had Hales caught behind. He followed this with a wide and an extraordinary sequence of six, wicket, four, wicket. The batters who succumbed to these two-ball dismissals were Daniel Sams and Suresh Raina.
When Bopara returned in the ninth over, Christian hit him for consecutive sixes, but Bopara had his revenge when he had Christian caught. Bopara eventually finished with 2-0-28-4.
Raina’s ordinary form continued: from four innings in the tournament, he has only 25 runs.
Opening batting, Bopara (72 not out in 29 balls, six fours, six sixes) then led the charge, completing the chase in 8.1 overs. Providing him company was Leus du Plooy (44 not out in 20 balls, three fours, four sixes).
Match 10, Mississauga Masters vs Toronto Sixers
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Ravi Bopara still has it in him
Bopara played 13 Tests, 120 ODIs, and 38 T20Is for England, and holds the Test record for most hundreds with a full fifty-to-hundred conversion ratio. The last of his international games was back in 2015.
However, he is still active in domestic cricket in both limited-overs formats. Kieron Pollard is the only cricketer with more T20 runs and wickets than the 9,948 and 292 of Bopara, who has featured in every edition of the T20 Blast in England. Just over a month ago, he scored a 46-ball 105 not out in the Blast quarter-final to help Northamptonshire beat Surrey.
