USA 197 for 3 (Jones 94*, Gous 65, Heyliger 1-19) beat Canada 194 for 5 (Dhaliwal 61, Kirton 51, Harmeet 1-27) by seven wickets
USA announced their arrival in the T20 World Cup with a demolition of their rivals Canada in Dallas.
Aaron Jones, the vice-captain, and Andries Gous, the former South African player and current Texas resident, made a mockery of their chase of 195 with a 131-run third-wicket partnership at a whirlwind run rate of 14.29. USA got the job done with seven wickets and 14 balls to spare.
Jones went on a six-hitting spree – he cleared the boundary ten times – and celebrated most of those with animated fist-pumps, which had the crowd chanting: “USA! USA! USA!”
Though Gous holed out for 65 off 46, Jones fittingly finished the chase with a pair of sixes, off offspinner Nikhil Dutta, and handed USA their fifth successive win over Canada, having beaten them 4-0 in the lead-up to their first-ever World Cup appearance.
The Jones-Gous show
On the eve of the T20 World Cup opener, Jones was asked to describe USA’s style of cricket. Here’s what he had to say: “To be honest I’ll say fearless cricket, positive cricket, smart cricket. I think that’s what we’re really and truly trying to do. We don’t want to regret anything. We want to leave everything out there on the park.”
Jones embodied that style by clattering an unbeaten 94 off 40 balls with ten sixes. Only Chris Gayle has hit more sixes in an innings in the men’s T20 World Cup.
When Jones came into bat, USA were 42 for 2 in the seventh over, having lost openers Steven Taylor (0) and Monank Patel (16 off 16). Canada’s seamers got the ball to nip around under lights, but Jones got stuck into the spinners, hitting fingerspinners Saad Bin Zafar and Dutta for 61 off a mere 22 balls. He slog-swept, reverse-swept, and even advanced down the pitch to dominate the spinners.
Jones showed he could cut it against pace too when he launched Dilon Heyliger for a 103-metre six. Gous, becalmed in the early exchanges, caught fire too when he lined up Jeremy Gordon for 6, 4, 6, 4 in the 14th over, which cost Canada 33 runs.
Gous’ experience complemented Jones’ big-hitting. Gous was Washington Freedom’s No.1 pick in the inaugural MLC draft and even trained in New South Wales under Burt Cockley, the former NSW seamer and Freedom’s current strength and conditioning Coach. He has also had some T20 exposure in the UAE, having had stints in the T10 and ILT20 leagues. He put all of that to good use in the opening match of the T20 World Cup.
Canada throw the first punch
After having been asked to bat first, Canada threw the first punch. Aaron Johnson set the tone for the innings with a first-ball four off Ali Khan and though the fast bowler pinged him on his helmet in his next over, he continued to attack.
Harmeet Singh, who had played two Under-19 World Cups for India and represented Rajasthan Royals in the IPL, however, slowed Canada down when he had Johnson toe-ending a catch to mid-off for 23 off 16 balls. Johnson’s opening partner, Navneet Dhaliwal, though pushed on to score a half-century, the first for Canada in a T20 World Cup. He added a 62-run stand for the third wicket with Nicholas Kirton, who slammed a fifty of his own.
There’s a bit of Nicholas Pooran about Kirton, especially when he lofts the ball over extra-cover with a bent knee. Kirton got into his groove with sixes off full-tosses from Taylor and Shadley van Schalkwyk. He was also the only Canada batter to have confidently dealt with Corey Anderson. Though Dhaliwal and Kirton fell in a space of three overs, wicketkeeper-batter Shreyas Movva gave the innings the finishing kick with an unbeaten 32 off 16 balls.
Anderson takes pace off
Anderson, the former New Zealand allrounder, became the fifth player to represent two different teams at the T20 World Cup after Roelof van der Merwe (South Africa and Netherlands), Dirk Nannes (Netherlands and Australia), David Wiese (South Africa and Namibia) and Mark Chapman (Hong Kong and New Zealand). He marked the occasion with a clever spell full of cutters into the Dallas pitch.
He was introduced into the attack in the 15th over and struck with his very first ball to dismiss Dhaliwal. He went onto bowl the 17th and 19th overs to come away with 3-0-29-1. Fourteen of his 18 balls were slower, according to ESPNcricinfo’s logs, and those variations helped USA restrict Canada to a sub-200 total.
Anderson later shared the winning moment with Jones and the Dallas crowd.
