T20 World Cup 2024, Match 1: USA beat Canada by 7 wickets

USA registered a convincing win by 7 wickets over Canada at the Grand Prairie Stadium in Dallas in the first match of the ongoing ICC T20 World Cup 2024. Aaron Jones and Andries Gous smashed swashbuckling knocks and helped the team win in the Canada vs USA match.

Canada players did well with the bat

The USA won the toss and opted to bowl first. Batting first, Canada openers Aaron Johnson (23 off 16) and Navneet Dhaliwal (61 off 44) got off to a steady start. They added 43 runs within the powerplay. Soon after, they lost 2 wickets before Nicholas Kirton came to steady the ship. He scored 51 off 31 with 3 fours and 2 sixes whereas Navneet Dhaliwal smashed 61 off 44 with 6 fours and 3 sixes as well.

However, after their dismissals, middle-order batters Shreyas Movva and Dilpreet Singh stepped up. While the former scored a quickfire 32* off 16 with 2 fours and 2 sixes, the latter’s quick 11 helped them to post a huge total of 194 runs in their allotted 20 overs with the loss of 5 wickets.

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Aaron Jones played a stunning knock

While chasing, the USA had a poor start as their opener Steven Taylor got out for a 2-ball duck. Soon, they lost their other opener and captain Monank Patel for a mere score of 16 within the powerplay. However, Andries Gous and Aaron Jones joined hands to steady the ship. They added 131 runs for the third wicket where Andries Gous scored 65 off 46 with 7 fours and 3 sixes.

However, it was Aaron Jones who played a swashbuckling knock of 94* off 40 with the help of 4 fours and 10 sixes. Their quickfire knocks helped the side to reach the target within 17.4 overs as well. Meanwhile, this is the third-highest successfully chased in a T20 World Cup.

Notably, Jones also became the Player of the Match for his stunning knock. This was the highest individual score by a non-opener in a successful run-chase in T20 World Cup history as well. However, this was the second-highest score by any batter on T20 World Cup debut as well. He also hit the joint second most sixes in an innings in T20 World Cups. Gayle tops the chart with his 11 sixes.

Aaron Jones said after the game: “I don’t think it is easy to put it into words. Happy to get my team over the line. I thought anything under 200 is chaseable. We wanted to play aggressive cricket. I think I go through my process while I practice. To be honest, when my team is under pressure it gets the best out of me.”

Monank Patel said after the game: “We always we knew he (Aaron Jones) had the game. He played fearless cricket. Really happy to see the crowd in numbers, hope they continue to give us the support. We want to continue the way we play are playing (fearless cricket). We don’t want to change anything whether we play Pakistan or India.”