united states of america Won 197-3 (Jones 94*, Goose 65, Heyliger 1-19) Canada 194 for 5 (Dhaliwal 61, Kirton 51, Harmeet 1-27), 7 wickets
Jones hit six straight balls, 10 of them over the boundary line, celebrating most of them with an animated fist pump as the crowd chanted “USA! USA! USA!”
Goose holed out for 65 off 46, but Jones hit two sixes off off-spinner Nikhil Dutta to wrap up the chase and give the United States their fifth consecutive win against Canada, which they defeated 4-0 ahead of their first World Cup appearance.
The Jones Goose Show
On the eve of the start of the T20 World Cup, Jones was asked about the US style of cricket and he replied: “To be honest with you, I think it’s fearless cricket, forward-thinking cricket, smart cricket. I think that’s what we’re really trying to do wholeheartedly. We don’t want to regret anything. We want to give it everything we’ve got on the field.”
When Jones came to bat, the USA were 42 for 2 in the seventh innings, losing openers Steven Taylor (0) and Monank Patel (16 off 16). Canada’s seamers flicked the ball away under the lights, but Jones hung on to the spinners, hitting finger spinners Saad Bin Zafar and Dutta for 61 off just 22 balls. He overpowered the spinners with slog sweeps, reverse sweeps and even stomping down the pitch.
Jones proved he could compete against the fastball, hitting Dillon Heyliger for a 103-metre six, and Ghose, who had a shaky start, regained momentum in the 14th over with a six, four, six and four off Jeremy Gordon to help Canada to 33 runs.
Gouse’s experience complemented Jones’ power batting. Gouse was the No. 1 pick in the first MLC draft by the Washington Freedom and trained in NSW under former NSW seamer and current Freedom strength and conditioning coach Bert Cockley. He also had T20 experience with the UAE, where he played in the T10 and ILT20 leagues. Gouse put all that experience to good use in the opening game of the T20 World Cup.
Canada launches first strike
Anderson picks up the pace
Former New Zealand all-rounder Anderson became just the fifth player to represent two different teams at a T20 World Cup, joining 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 graced the occasion with a series of deft cutter passes on the Dallas pitch.
He was introduced into the attack in the 15th over and dismissed Dhaliwal with his first ball. He continued to bowl in the 17th and 19th overs to finish with figures of 3-0-29-1. As tracked by ESPNcricinfo, 14 of his 18 balls were slow, and the variety helped the USA keep Canada below 200.
Anderson then shared his moment of victory with Jones and the Dallas crowd.
Devarayan Muthu is Associate Editor at ESPNcricinfo.
