DALLAS: Aaron Jones played a scintillating 94-run knock to power the United States of America (USA) to victory against Canada in the ICC T20 World Cup 2024 opener here at Grand Prairie Stadium on Saturday.
Chasing 195, the USA won the match by seven wickets with 14 balls to spare.
The home team lost the first wicket on the second ball of their pursuit as Kaleem Sana dismissed Steven Taylor.
Andries Gous joined skipper Monank Patel (16) and together they added 42 runs for the second wicket before the latter got caught behind off Dilon Heyliger.
With 153 required off 81 balls, Jones came down to the crease and joined a settled Gous.
However, they turned things around with their belligerent hitting, scoring 131 runs for the third wicket in only 58 balls.
The partnership was dominated by Jones, who smashed Canadian bowlers all across the park, while Gous scored a 46-ball 65, featuring seven boundaries and three sixes.
Jones continued the onslaught after Gous’ wicket, ending the game in the 18th over with a massive six over the deep midwicket boundary.
The right-handed batter smashed ten sixes, during his entertaining innings of 94 runs from 40 balls. He also hit four boundaries.
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Canada’s Kaleem Sana, Dilon Heyliger and Nikhil Dutta bagged one wicket each.
Earlier, Canada were invited to bat first by the USA and had a stable start with a 43-run opening stand between Aaron Johnson and Dhaliwal.
Johnson scored 23 off 16 with the help of five boundaries before falling to Harmeet Singh in the last over of the powerplay.
Meanwhile, Pargat Singh got run out with 66 runs on the board. Kirton then joined Dhaliwal and together they constructed a blistering third-wicket partnership of 62 runs in just 37 balls.
Corey Anderson broke the partnership with the wicket of Dhaliwal, who top-scored for Canada with 61 off 44. The opening batter struck six boundaries and three sixes.
Kirton continued his strokeplay, scoring 51 runs from 31 balls with the help of five boundaries, including two sixes before Ali Khan ended his stay at the crease.
Shreyas Movva gave a finishing touch to the innings with an unbeaten 32 off 16, laced with two sixes and two boundaries to push the team’s total to 194-5 in 20 overs.
For the USA, Ali Khan, Harmeet Singh and Corey Anderson claimed one wicket each.
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