The highly-anticipated T20 World Cup 2024 kicks off today at the Grand Prairie Stadium in Dallas, with cricket’s oldest rivalry taking center stage. The United States will take on Canada in the opening match, reigniting a historic clash that dates back to 1844 when these two sides played the first-ever international cricket match at the St George’s Cricket Club in New York.
Monank Patel will lead the USA, while Saad Bin Zafar will captain Canada in this highly-anticipated encounter. The North American rivals have met seven times in T20I matches, with the USA holding the upper hand, winning five matches, and Canada emerging victorious twice.
The USA and Canada find themselves in Group A alongside cricket powerhouses India, Pakistan, and Ireland. The USA enters the tournament in good form, having recently secured a series win over Canada (4-0, with one no-result) and a historic 2-1 series victory against Bangladesh. Meanwhile, Canada, despite losing the series to the USA in April, received a morale boost with a win over Nepal in a T20 World Cup warm-up match.
American batter Aaron Jones expressed his team’s determination to play fearless cricket during the tournament. “We don’t want to regret anything,” Jones said. “We want to leave everything out there on the park. 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.”
Canada’s skipper Saad echoed similar sentiments, stating, “We have finally made it. We’re finally here. Everybody’s excited. Everybody’s itching to go. Everybody’s in the performance mood. I think we are ready to go and play some quality cricket in the next few weeks. We don’t have a lot of pressure on our shoulders. I think we just want to go and express ourselves and play to our potential. That’s the brand of cricket that we’re looking to play.”
