Nepal’s leg spinner Sandeep Lamichhane played a crucial role in Montreal Tigers’ first victory in the Global Twenty20 Canada after the teen bowler bowled economically and picked up a wicket at the Maple Leaf North-West ground in King City on Wednesday.

Sandeep’s performance was a big turnaround from his display in the first game - against West Indies ‘B’on June 30 - where he was hammered for 57 runs in four overs. He went on to bounce back in the second game, the team’s third, against Vancouver Knights on Tuesday conceding 19 runs and taking a wicket. However, his team went on to lose their third consecutive game.

On Wednesday, Edmonton Royals restricted Tigers to an average 129-6 in 20 overs but the Sandeep returned with the ball to give the early initiative and Australian seamer Peter Siddle ran riot before bundling out the opponents for just 114 runs in 19.1 overs. The 14-run victory has also kept Tigers’ hopes alive in the hunt for next round.

Sandeep came to bowl the third over and gave Tigers the breakthrough clean bowling Andre Fletcher (nine) and ended up with a wicket maiden. He conceded just five runs in his second over, seven in the third and four in the fourth to make sure his miserly figures of 1-19 was going to play key role in Tigers’ win.

Man-of-the-match Siddle returned the figures of 4-13 from 3.1 overs, while skipper Lasith Malinga and Kevon Cooper also took two wickets each. New Zealand opener Luke Ronchi top scored with a 19-ball 30 for Royals hitting three boundaries and a six. Shaiman Anwar (24) was their next best contributor.

Earlier, Tigers were reeling at 25-3 in 30 overs before Moises Henriques (50) once again steadied the ship beginning with a 52-run partnership with Zimbabwe allrounder Sikandar Raza (20).

Tigers will now play bottom side Toronto Nationals in their last league match where a victory will make them wait for remaining equation to reach the second round. Winnibeg Hawks currently lead the table on net run rate after they were tied on four points with West Indies ‘B’.