Aaron Jones was at a loss for words after starring in USA’s seven-wicket demolition of Canada in the T20 World Cup opener in which the New Yorker introduced himself to cricket’s elites with a 40-ball 94.
Set a target of 195, USA stuttered initially, losing opener Steven Taylor for zero off the second ball of the innings, and was 42 for two after 6.3 overs.
But Jones had other ideas as he came up with a counter-attacking knock to script a memorable win with 14 balls to spare.
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“I don’t think it is easy to put it into words. We know Canada come hard against us since it is a big rivalry. Happy to take the team over the line,” said Jones, who smashed 10 sixes, the second most in a T20 World Cup innings, behind West Indian Chris Gayle’s 11 against England in 2016.
On his big shots, he said, “I go through my processes and I like my power hitting. I know if I get it in the middle, it will go for sure. I like to come in when the team is under pressure, it brings out the best in me.”
Despite losing two early wickets, Jones said he was confident of chasing down the total with their long batting line-up. He got a helping hand from Andries Gous, who made 65 off 46 balls in a 131-run partnership.
“With our batting line-up, knew anything under 200 is chaseable. Outfield and pitch were good and we knew that,” said Jones after USA’s highest run-chase in T20Is.
USA skipper Monank Patel said, “We’ve always known, he [Jones] has the game. He played fearless cricket and backing his shots. It was clean hitting. We want to continue the way we are playing. Don’t want to change our fearless cricket whether we play Pakistan or India.”
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Calling it a team effort, Patel said, “The way we’ve been playing against Canada in previous series, I thought it was a whole team effort.”
USA recently defeated Canada 4-0 in the lead-up to the T20 World Cup.
“Gous and Jones handled the pressure situation, took the game out of Canada.”
He, however, said they gave away 10-15 runs extra with the ball.
“As soon as we bowled, the ball was coming well. We bowled well in patches but we gave 10-15 runs extra. Ball was two-paced too.”
Canada gave away 19 runs in extras that included 14 wides, and captain Saad Bin Zafar stressed the need to improve.
“Our bowlers missed their lines and lengths, and we shouldn’t have given away the no-balls and extras. We played an exceptional game overall. Nothing to be sad about, the effort from the boys was good. This is just the start and hope we can do well in the next game,” he said.
USA will next take on Pakistan at the same venue on Thursday, while Canada faces Ireland in New York on Friday.