United States batter Aaron Jones with his unbeaten 94 led his team to register their maiden 2024 T20 World Cup victory on Sunday.
United States and Canada were scheduled to play the tournament opener on June 2 in Grand Prairie Stadium, Dallas. Being one of the hosts, the United States was expected to have an upper hand while Canada was also expected to give equal tough owing to their T20 exposure.
Winning the toss, the United States decided to bowl first while Canada’s openers made a decent start by adding 43 runs for the first wicket. Harmeet Singh drew the first blood by dismissing Johnson for 23 runs while Pargat Singh lost his wicket via runout and returned to the pavilion after scoring just 5 runs.
Nicholas Kirton then scored 51 runs and boosted the team’s score beyond 150 before his dismissal. With Shreyas Movva’s unbeaten 32, Canada scored 194 runs for 5 wickets loss at the end of 20 overs.
While chasing, the US lost their opening batter for a duck and lost their second wicket for 42 runs. Kaleem Sana dismissed Steven Taylor for a duck in the second delivery of the inning while Dillon Heyliger dismissed M Patel for 16 runs in the 7th over.
Following the quick dismissals, US was expected to face pressure but Andries Gous and Aaron Jones saved the shrinking ship by adding 131 runs for the third wicket.
Nikhil Dutta finally managed to break the partnership by dismissing Andries Gous for 65 runs while US scored 173 runs in 15.4 overs. Aaron Jones continued to show aggression though he lost his batting partner in a crucial situation.
With a quick fire 94 off 40 balls, Jones helped US to chase down the 190+ run target with 14 balls left to bowl. Aaron Jones was crowned the player of the match for his aggressive knock.
United States will play their next match of the tournament against Pakistan on June 6 in Grand Prairie Stadium, Dallas.
