USA vs CAN | Hosts bring World Cup to life with dynamite batting to triumph in cricket's oldest rivalry

Hard-hitting opener Aaron Johnson ensured Canada's maiden T20 World Cup campaign got off to a flying start with a cracking drive through extra cover for four. The 33-year-old combined with Navneet Dhaliwal for seven boundaries in a 43-run stand before succumbing to Harmeet Singh in the final over of the powerplay, the score eventually reading 50/1 after six overs. When another scalp followed soon after in the form of an unfortunate run-out of Pargat Singh, Dhaliwal stepped on the accelerator and Nicholas Kirton ably reciprocated the approach from the other end. The duo added 66 runs to Canada's tally off just 35 deliveries, bringing up the first two individual half-centuries of the tournament respectively, before handing over the reins to Shreyas Movva for the death overs. The wicket-keeper obliged with a scintillating unbeaten cameo of 32 at a strike rate of 200, taking Canada to a mammoth total of 194/5 in their 20 overs.

In response, USA's run chase got off to a disastrous start as Kaleem Sana trapped the in-form Steven Taylor plumb in front of the stumps for a silver duck. With the Kookaburra hooping around under lights, the hosts were restricted to a subpar powerplay score of 41/1 and the situation was exacerbated further by skipper Monank Patel capitulating to the pressure three balls later for a run-a-ball 16. However, just when the required run rate crept over 12 with as many overs to go, Aaron Jones and Andries Gous switched gears to rain hail marys on a helpless Canadian attack. The duo struck 10 maximums in the next six overs to aggregate over 100 runs, bringing up their fifties off 39 and 22 balls respectively. Even when Jeremy Gordon finally managed to break through, the wicket was struck down by a no-ball call which proved to be the final nail in the coffin. By the time Gous holed out in the 16th over to snap the 55-ball 131-run stand, the requirement had dwindled to less than six an over and the hosts thereafter trotted home to their highest-ever T20I chase with 14 balls to spare.

Apparently 2024 t20 world cup is going on and hardly any cricket fans have idea about it

— ABUBAKAR (@nobdycaresss) 

Kick off

World Cup T20 Canada Vs USA:Canada is led by Gujranwala born Saad Bin Zafar while USA's captain is Gujrat(state)born Monank Patel! So basically its ind vs pak 🤭

— Asad Wassan (@imasadwassan15) 

He truly showed his experience

A huge difference in the Powerplay between the pacers of the USA & Canada has been how Kaleem Sana & Jeremy Gordon bowled seam up and generated movement.



Whereas, the likes of Ali Khan & Saurabh Netravalkar bowled more scrambled seam deliveries. In particular, Ali. 

— Jeet Vachharajani (Men's Cricket) (@Jeetv27) 

Just the 5th ever player

Corey Anderson Takes a Wicket on His First Delivery 🔥 

— Dev Meena (@DevJaGjeeVanpuR)