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The United States of America kicked off its T20 World Cup 2024 campaign by registering a thumping win over Canada in the opening match of the multination tournament. This was USA’s first win in T20 World Cup a team which is making its debut in the 20-team tournament. Bowling first USA got off to a shaky start as the Canadian opening batters started the innings in an attacking manner taking on the US new ball bowlers.
The Start
The opening pair of Aaron Jhonson and Navneet Dhaliwal added 43 runs for the first wicket in 5.2 overs. Dhaliwal was more attacking of the two batters as he took on the fast bowling pair of Ali Khan and Saurabh Netravalkar helping his team make full use of the fielding restrictions during the first six overs. Aaron Jhonson who is also known for his clean ball striking provided good support to Dhaliwal before being foxed by Harmeet Singh for a score of 23 in just 16 balls.
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The Partnership
Pargat Singh who walked in to bat at number three couldn’t contribute much with the bat and was dismissed after scoring five runs. Having lost two quick wickets Canada was in desperate need of a partnership and the pair of Dhaliwal and Nicholas Kirton stood up to add 62 runs for the third wicket. Both the batters completed a well-deserved half-century to give their team a good platform to capitalize on in the death overs. Canada’s middle order batters Shreyas Movva and Dilpreet Singh ensured that the team finished off on a high courtesy of the duo’s valuable cameos in the last three overs which Canada did by posting a total of 194 runs on the board.
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The Effort
As far as USA’s bowling is concerned the Monak Patel-led side did pull things back in the last few overs courtesy of some good bowling experienced all-rounder Corey Anderson who picked up a wicket giving away just 29 runs in his three overs. He was well supported by Harmeet Singh who bowled economically in his quota of four overs giving away less than seven runs in an over and also picking up a wicket.
The Chase
Chasing 195 runs to win USA batters found it difficult to bat on pitch which was assisting the fast bowlers due to the change in conditions at the start of the second innings. The Canadian fast bowlers were getting the ball to swing a lot causing discomfort for the opposition batters as a result USA lost their first wicket on the second ball of the innings as Steven Taylor was given out LBW. Andries Gous who walked in at number three also found it difficult to tackle the bounce along with the captain Monak Patel who ended up throwing his wicket away in an attempt to get going.
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The Approach
Aaron Jones, however, looked the most comfortable of the USA batters from ball one and that was to do with the one over of Nikhil Dutta that shifted the momentum in the USA’s favour and was the turning point of the match as from that point the pair of Jones and Gous started attacking the Canadian spinners who were operating in the middle overs. Captain Sad Zafar tried to break the momentum by bringing back fast bowler Jeremy Gordon but that proved to be the final nail in the coffin as both the batters took the full toll of some poor bowling from the fast bowler and hammered him for 33 runs in an over completing their half-centuries in the process. Although Gous was dismissed soon after reaching the milestone Jones remained unbeaten till the end and finished the match with a six.
