Jones, Gous impress to give USA opening win

Jun 02, 2024 Sports

ICC Men’s T20 World Cup 2024…

Kaieteur Sports – The highly anticipated ICC Men’s T20 World Cup 2024 finally got underway on Saturday evening at the Grand Prairie Stadium in Dallas where co-host, the United States of America, collided with Canada in the first action-packed showdown.

USA and Canada took to the field prior to the start of their match. (Getty Images)

Following a 15-minute opening ceremony that featured a mix of cultures and displays of the 20 countries involved in the global tournament, the inaugural hosting of a World Cup match on US soil got underway as the home team won the toss and decided to field.

It was USA that drew first blood with a massive 7-wicket win.

The Canadians got off to an excellent start compliments of Aaron Johnson (23) and the impressive Navneet Dhaliwal (61), who recorded the first half-century of the tournament. Nicholas Kirton (51) followed and brought up his half-century in an innings that kept their scoreboard ticking.

USA managed to remove the chief scorers in the death overs which helped restrict the free-scoring Canadian opponents, but Shreyas Movva played an excellent cameo of 32 from 16 which pushed their total to 194 – 5. A wicket each went to Ali Khan, Harmeet Singh and Corey Anderson in USA’s bowling innings.

Set with a target that would mean a personal record if achieved, USA got off to a terrible start with the loss of Steven Taylor for a duck on the second ball of the run chase to Kaleem Sana, without a run on the board.

The captain, Monank Patel (16), along with Andries Gous tried to recover from the early loss, but their occupation at the crease with strike rates barely above 100 for an extended period caused the equation to become quite challenging by the end of the powerplay. By the 10th over, USA were 81 – 2 and required 114 from 60 balls. The next five overs were very eventful with Gous and Aaron Jones putting on a magnificent display of power hitting which brought the target closer by 87 runs. Their 131-run partnership came to an end when Gous held out on the long on boundary for 65. But with Jones at the other end on 76 with eight sixes and just 21 required from 24, USA were clinical in sealing the victory as they reached 197-3 with 14 balls remaining.

Jones finished unbeaten on 94 from 40 delivers, laced with ten maximums and four fours.

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