Winnipeg Hawks need 13 runs to enter the GT20 final. The man whom Brampton Wolves have picked to bowl that over is a 35-year-old medium-pacer who plays for Canada, Cecil Pervez. Cecil plays for the Shahid Afridi Cricket Club in Toronto. He was in high school when Afridi first played for Pakistan, when he reeled off that madcap hundred off 37 balls. For the next few years, Cecil “wanted to be Shahid Afridi”. He moved to Canada in 2000 and first played for the national cricket team in 2011. Now, as his childhood hero Afridi stood at short midwicket – and as one of the great T20 captains Darren Sammy set the field – Cecil warmed up for the final over. “I’ve been bowling the final over for Canada for the last few years,” he would say later. “I knew the game was coming down to the last over. I was mentally okay with that.” Cecil’s first ball is yorker-length and outside off. JP Duminy, batting on 42, carves it past point for two runs. Cecil’s second ball is also yorker-length and outside off. Duminy taps it to cover for a single. Winnipeg Hawks need 10 to win off 4 balls. Early last year, Cecil bowled the final over of another match. That was for Canada against Nepal in a crucial World Cricket League Division Two game. Nepal needed 8 off the final over with one wicket in hand. A nerve-jangling finish was in store. Cecil began with four dots but conceded a heart-rending six next ball. A wide followed. And then a single sent Nepal into raptures. They had clinched a spot in the World Cup Qualifiers. According to some local club cricketers here, that was the “biggest heartbreak”. Now at the CAA Centre in Brampton, Cecil runs in for the third ball, from around the wicket, to the right-handed Dwayne Smith. He has had a brief chat with Sammy, and they have perhaps decided to not allow Smith to free his arms. Cecil lands it outside leg stump and angles it towards the pads. But one little deflection is all it takes. The ball races past the wicketkeeper for four leg-byes. “In this kind of format, it’s really tough to defend 15, 16, 17 runs,” Cecil would say later. “All it takes is for a couple of balls to not go your way. Like the ball that went for four leg-byes.” Winnipeg Hawks need 6 to win off 3 balls. Cecil, along with many of the Canadian cricketers, have been both playing cricket and working their jobs through this tournament. Cecil even worked a few hours yesterday – “in car sales” – though he says his job doesn’t demand much from him. “Most of the Canadian players have to work and play cricket. I have a full-time job, and sometimes it can be challenging. Taking time off from work and playing is not ideal. But for us it’s the biggest opportunity. And I just love being part of this tournament. “I am working for a friend right now. He is also my manager and helps me take time off from work and play. While playing, I work few hours only. It’s an easy job. Just have to show up.” Now Cecil runs in for ball number four. Again he is bowling around the wicket. But this time he cramps Smith for room. And the batsman can only smack it to midwicket, for a single. Winnipeg Hawks need 5 runs off 2 balls.