The United States defeated Canada by seven wickets in the inaugural match of the T20 World Cup 2024 on Saturday at the Grand Prairie Stadium in Dallas.
The USA won the toss and elected to field first. In the first innings, Canada scored 194 runs for 5, with Aaron Johnson scoring 23 off 16 balls, Navneet Dhaliwal making 61 off 44 deliveries, and Nicholas Kirton scoring 51 off 31 balls.
In the second innings, USA's Aaron Jones played a belligerent knock of 94 runs in 40 balls, which included four fours and 10 maximums, as the hosts chased 195-run target in only 17.4 overs.
The partnership of 131 runs between Jones and Andries Gous came at 14.29 runs per over — the highest run-rate for any century partnership at the T20 World Cup.
Gous scored 65 runs in 46 balls with the help of seven fours and three sixes.
Meanwhile, Jones has joined the elite company of the West Indies’ Chris Gayle with 10 sixes against Canada.
Gayle had achieved the same feat twice, one in his inaugural T20 World Cup match against South Africa back in 2007 and the other in his face-off against England in 2016.
He made 117 runs off 57 balls, with seven fours and 10 massive sixes, against South Africa while he scored 100 runs off 48 deliveries against England.
Jones is the third player to achieve this feat, making it a commendable milestone in the tournament’s history.
Additionally, the partnership between Jones and Gous has given the USA's team a special place in the global cricket arena.
Canada and the USA are in Group A of the T20 World Cup alongside India, Pakistan, and Ireland.
Lineups
Canada: 1 Aaron Johnson, 2 Navneet Dhaliwal, 3 Pargat Singh, 4 Nicholas Kirton, 5 Shreyas Movva (wk), 6 Dilpreet Bajwa, 7 Saad Bin Zafar (capt), 8 Nikhil Dutta, 9 Dilon Heyliger, 10 Kaleem Sana, 11 Jeremy Gordon
USA: 1 Steven Taylor, 2 Monank Patel (capt, wk), 3 Andries Gous, 4 Aaron Jones, 5 Nitish Kumar, 6 Corey Anderson, 7 Harmeet Singh, 8 Shadley van Schalkwyk, 9 Jasdeep Singh, 10 Ali Khan, 11 Saurabh Netravalkar
- Chris Gayle
