June 1st 2024, Dallas, Texas
Aaron Jones, USA vice-captain became the newest hero of American cricket with the best inning of his career as he steered the USA with a match winning 94 not out from 40 balls with 10 massive sixes and 4 fours at a strike rate of 235.
Earlier Monank patel, captain of the USA team won the toss and elected to field first against archrival Canada in a battle of Group A debutants, as both teams are ICC associate members who have an opportunity to create history for the T20 format.
While batting first, Canada ended up scoring 194 for 5 in 20 overs. Canada lost their opening batter Aaron Johnson for 22 runs from 15 balls with 5 fours. During the last over of the power play the score was 42 in 5.3 overs. Left arm spinner Harmeet Singh was the successful bowler to get the breakthrough for USA in his first over. Parghat Singh was run out for 5 runs from 7 balls at the score 66 runs for 2 wickets.
Nicholas Kirton Joined Navneet Dhaliwal to steady Canada’s inning with 62 runs in the 3rd wicket partnership. Corey Anderson, former New Zealand all-rounder grabbed his first wicket off his first ball in his first over, When Navneet Dhaliwal was caught by Jasdeep Singh for 61 runs from 44 balls with 3 sixes and 6 fours with the score reading 128 for 3 after 14.1 overs.
Muhammad Ahsan Ali khan, got his first wicket in T20 World Cup when Nicholas Kirton was caught by Corey Anderson for 51 runs of 31 balls with 2 sixes and 3 fours, the score was 159 for 4 wickets after 17.5 overs. With the remaining 13 balls of the inning, Canada was able to score 35 runs with the loss of Dilpreet Bajwa, run out for 11 runs from 5 balls with one six and one four. Shreyas Movva, the wicket keeper scored 32 runs from 16 balls with 2 sixes and 2 fours.
USA did not bowl a single no ball in the inning, and they only allowed 10 extra runs, 8 leg byes and 2 wides. In contrast, Canada bowled 14 wides and three no balls to concede 19 extra runs. Team USA’s run chase got a shocking start as they lost Steven Taylor on the second ball of the inning without any score when he was out LBW to Kaleem Sana. Captain Monank Patel scored 16 runs from 16 balls with 2 fours. He was next to fall when the score was 42 runs after 6.3 overs with 152 more runs needed to win the match and 81 balls remaining.
Aaron Jones, Man of the match winner, carried USA’s inning with a 121 runs third wicket partnership together with Andries Gous scored 65 runs from 46 balls with 3 sixes and 7 fours. He was out with the score at 173 runs for 3 wickets after 15.4 overs. It was too late for the Canada as Nikhil Dutta got his first wicket with the USA needing 22 runs from the remaining 26 balls. Corey Anderson provided final support with Aaron Jones scoring three runs from 5 balls, as USA scored the 197 runs for the loss of 3 wickets from 17.3 overs.
USA won the match by seven wickets with 15 balls left, to collect their first 2 points in the ICC T20 World Cup. USA continued to perform well as they recently won two T20 series over Canada and Bangladesh, and they have a 5-0 winning momentum in preparation for the second match against the Pakistan here in Dallas.
USA has achieved new records and new milestones as the third-highest successful run chase in Men’s T20 World Cup matches, and additionally they have the highest ever runs scored by an Associate team. Aaron Jones now has the second-highest individual score on a T20 World Cup debut after Chris Gayle scored 117 runs in 2007.
USA with this historical win over Canada as achieved a level of revenge for the defeat suffered in 1844 first ever International match.
Credits
Jatin Patel, Dennis Heath for the compilation with the content including photo and video from ICC.
