Hello sports fans, exciting news……..the cricket has begun! The colours of the T20 Cricket World Cup lit up the iconic Rockefeller Centre in New York City last night and The USA have now hosted its first ever cricket World Cup match. It seems fitting that USA Vs Canada, the world’s oldest sporting fixture, should kick off this historic World Cup. The combatants lined up at The Grand Prairie Stadium, Texas, USA’s second best known cricket ground. Songs were sung, hands were shaken and then……….finally the World Cup began!
USA won the toss and elected to field. If I were the Canadian leadership I’d have been pretty pleased with that, these American pitches are a little unknown even to the teams that use them most and score board pressure can do a lot for you.
The Maple leafers came out swinging and batted really nicely. Navneet Dhaliwal scored a good 61 runs off 41 balls. Nicholas Kirton and Shreyas Movva both contributed with a 51 and 32 respectively. USA did peg Canada back somewhat, with former New Zealand bowler Corey Anderson getting a wicket from his first ball for the states. Never the less Canada posted a very respectable 194.
The USA in reply started shakily, with opening batter Steven Taylor getting out LBW with just the 2nd ball of the innings. USA’s captain Monank Patel was swinging like a rusty gate before losing his wicket for a run a ball 16. At this point the American dream seemed lost, with their two opening batters out and chasing 195 to win, the states looked to be in a state! Then step to the crease one Aaron Jones. Jones, fairly unknown even within the circles he moves, seemed an unlikely saviour to come in at this point, especially with the likes of Corey Anderson on the bench. Jones stepped to the wicket clad in red, white and blue and showed the cricketing world why he is USA’s number 4! In one of the most exciting innings you might wish to see, certainly the most exciting probably ever to take place in north east Texas, Jones smashed 10 sixes to finish the match with an unbeaten 94 off just 40 balls! With able assistance from Andrias Gous hitting a solid 65, USA finished on 197 with 14 balls to spare claiming the first points of this World Cup!
What the tournament needed was an exciting game to get things going and this didn’t disappoint. A near sold out crowd in Texas saw their home team and their closest rivals go at it tooth and nail with a platitude of sixes, good bowling and hard running………cricket’s boring? Give over!
Match 2 of the opening day saw cohosts West Indies take on associate team Papau New Guinea at the Guyana National Stadium.
The Windies won the toss and put Papau New Guinea into bat first. PNG are in the finals of this World Cup by virtue of winning the East Asia-Pacific qualifier, so they are there on merit, albeit still underdogs.
PNG came out to face the might of the West Indies bowlers and, certainly to start with, things went as you might expect. In the time it took to pour a couple of cups of cold brew PNG were 4 wickets down for just 24 runs. I imagine the Windies supporters were planning an early BBQ at this point, however right arm bowler Sese Bau put up some stubborn resistance and reached a career matching top score of 50. Between them the PNG lads got themselves to a reasonably respectful 136 for 8.
The West Indies would have felt confident in knocking that total off in short order. Out walked their intrepid men, proudly wearing the claret and gold of West Indies and then, back Johnson Charles went, trapped LBW from his first ball. All of a sudden the terraces at the Guyana National Stadium might well have felt a case of West Indies-itus come over them as their team steadily lost wickets against the PNG attack.
The cricket gods seemed to smile on Windies today though. A rain break gave them a chance to reset and although they made heavy weather of things, a good knock from Roston Chase got the co-host over the line with just an over to spare. West Indies did what they needed to do but PNG can hold their heads up after a strong performance against, on paper at least, a tough opponent.
Day 1 done and it’s been every bit as exciting as I was hoping. Tomorrow we have Namibia Vs Oman doing the 1.30am night shift and Sri Lanka taking on South Africa at 3.30pm.
Hopefully you’ll join me tomorrow for my thoughts on those 2 games and what we have to look forward to on Tuesday.
Until then thanks for having a read.
All the best,
Nick
All The Cricket 
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