USA vs Canada: oldest rivalry renewed at cricket's biggest T20 World Cup
Written by I Dig Sports
Match details
United States of America vs Canada
Dallas, 7.30pm local
Big picture - USA start as favourites
One-hundred-and-eighty years later, the same two teams will come face to face in the T20 World Cup 2024 opener in Dallas. Coincidentally, it is the first T20 World Cup for both sides. USA qualified by virtue of being the co-hosts and Canada by winning the Americas Qualifier.
Nevertheless, USA will be the favourites on Saturday. While they have played only seven T20Is since the 2022 T20 World Cup - all in the last two months - that was enough to show their pedigree. They first beat Canada 4-0 before stunning Bangladesh 2-1, both times playing at home.
Form guide
United States of America LWWWW (last five completed T20Is, most recent first)
Canada LLLLW
In the spotlight - Corey Anderson and Aaron Johnson
Team news
In Steven Taylor, Monank Patel and Andries Gous, USA have a solid top order. Ali Khan and Saurabh Netravalkar will lead the pace unit. Harmeet, their main spinner, can also provide late-order hitting.
United States of America (probable XI): 1 Steven Taylor, 2 Monank Patel (capt, wk), 3 Andries Gous, 4 Aaron Jones, 5 Nitish Kumar, 6 Corey Anderson, 7 Harmeet Singh, 8 Shadley van Schalkwyk, 9 Jasdeep Singh, 10 Ali Khan, 11 Saurabh Netravalkar
Canada will rely a lot on their bowlers. Apart from Gordon and Sana, they have Dilon Heyliger in the pace attack. Captain Saad Bin Zafar and Nikhil Dutta know how to keep batters quiet with their spin variations.
Canada (probable XI): 1 Aaron Johnson, 2 Navneet Dhaliwal, 3 Rayyan Pathan, 4 Nicholas Kirton, 5 Pargat Singh, 6 Shreyas Movva (wk), 7 Saad Bin Zafar (capt), 8 Nikhil Dutta, 9 Dilon Heyliger, 10 Jeremy Gordon, 11 Kaleem Sana
Stats that matter
- Taylor and Patel have six 50-plus stands in the 12 T20I innings in which they have opened together for USA. Their partnership run rate is 9.65.
- Since the last T20 World Cup in 2022, only two batters have scored 700 or more runs at a 50-plus average and a 150-plus strike rate: India's Suryakumar Yadav and Canada's Aaron Johnson.
- Across all T20s, Johnson has taken Netravalkar for 50 runs in 30 balls while getting out only once.
- Aaron Jones has smashed Heyliger for 23 runs in 11 balls for one dismissal. But Saad has had the wood over him: two dismissals in 23 balls for just 15 runs.
- Saad is the only bowler to have registered four maidens in a T20I, a feat he achieved against Panama in 2021 when he finished with figures of 4-4-0-2.
- So far, only four players have represented two different teams at the T20 World Cup: 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). Anderson could join them on Saturday.
Pitch and conditions
Quotes
"I will say fearless cricket, positive cricket, smart cricket. I think that's what we're really and truly trying to do. We don't want to regret anything. We want to leave everything out there on the park. And then, obviously, if we come out on top, it's great. If we don't come out on top, that's how cricket goes sometimes. But we don't want to regret anything."
USA vice-captain Aaron Jones on the brand of cricket they want to play
"At the national level, we are rivals because we are from the same region. We tend to play against each other a lot. Most of the time it's in qualifiers where there's a lot on the line, whether it's the ODI status or the T20 World Cup qualification. But at the same time, we do play a lot of tournaments and franchise cricket in the North American region. So there's a lot of friendships between the two countries as well."
Canada captain Saad Bin Zafar on the rivalry between the two sides
Hemant Brar is a sub-editor at ESPNcricinfo
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