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Key events
14th over: Canada 128-2 (Dhaliwal 61, Kirton 32) A low full toss by Van Schalkwyk is beautifully lifted over extra cover for six from Kirton, who hammers the next ball straight for four. This was probably an even better shot, with a classic high front elbow, and Kirton held the pose after that.
13th over: Canada 112-2 (Dhaliwal 60, Kirton 17) Dhaliwal survives tripped referral after missing a shot from the impressive Harmeet. Monank pulled out the saves in a flash but Dhaliwal just managed to wedge his back foot behind the line.
Dhaliwal smashes the last two balls of Harmeet’s spell for four, the first down the ground and the second over extra cover. Harmeet finished with figures of 4-0-27-1.
12th over: Canada 102-2 (Dhaliwal 51, Kirton 16) Dhaliwal pushes Van Schalkwyk back over his head for six, flat and hard. A single off the next ball takes him to an eye-catching fifty of 36 balls, with three sixes and four fours. Looks like a good player.
11th over: Canada 90-2 (Dhaliwal 43, Kirton 12) Netravalkar returns after the drinks break. Dhaliwal plays a stylish shot from inside out over extra cover but he gets just two for that and has a total of five from the over.
10th over: Canada 85-2 (Dhaliwal 40, Kirton 10) Occasional offspinner Steven Taylor makes an appearance, presumably with left-hander Kirton in mind. But I don’t think he’ll spend a second.
His first ball is a high full toss for which Curton uses extra cover six. His third is a bit too full and burnt for a long time six more by Dhaliwal. Three singles make it a superb over for Canada, the best of the innings.
Time for drink break. Who wins? Don’t ask stupid questions, this is cricket.
9th over: Canada 70-2 (Dhaliwal 33, Kirton 2) The US is starting to turn the screw. Harmeet Singh changes the end and rushes through an excellent over, just four singles from him.
8th over: Canada 66-2 (Dhaliwal 31, Kirton 0) That was the last ball of the over.
VARITKA! Canada 66-2 (Pargat run out 5)
Pargat Singh is gone! He turned new bowler Stanley van Schalkwyk behind square on the leg side and came back in short order. Jasdeep’s throw was excellent and keeper Monank Patel did the rest as Pargat struggled desperately – and unsuccessfully – to make ground.
7th over: Canada 60-1 (Dhaliwal 29, Pargat 1) Dhaliwal cuts Jasdeep behind square offside for four, then blasts it wide of mid-off for another one. He stepped up a gear after Johnson was fired. When that happened, Dhaliwal had 14 off 16 balls; since then he has hit 15 in 7.
Pargat is not out! Yes, too high and the US loses review.
USA review for LBW vs Pargat! It looks high to me, but batsman Jasdeep convinced his captain to go up.
6th over: Canada 50-1 (Dhaliwal 20, Pargat 1) New player Pargat Singh almost falls on the second ball, chipping Harmeet just bit of Nitish running from long distance. Nitish did superbly to pick up the ball on the half-volley and flick it to the keeper, almost forcing a run-out as a result. Dhaliwal was right at home.
Dhaliwal shows Johnson and Pargat how to play the shot, blasting Harmeet inside out over mid off for the first six of the world championship. This is a magnificent shot.
VARITKA! Canada 43-1 (Johnson c Nitish b Harmeet 23)
Harmeet Singh takes the big wicket of Aaron Johnson! It was a standard slow delivery from the left-wicket – but it appeared to stop on the pitch and Johnson flicked it straight to Nitish Kumar at long-on.
In fact, I may have done Harmit a disservice; replays show he cheated Johnson with a change of pace.
5th over: Canada 43-0 (Johnson 23, Dhaliwal 14) Jasdeep Singh, a confident right-hander, replaces Ali Khan and restores some order with an excellent first over. Just three runs from him and he could have taken a wicket when Dhaliwal edged inside past leg stump.
Johnson has 23 off 14 balls, Dhaliwal 14 off 16.
4th over: Canada 40-0 (Johnson 22, Dhaliwal 12) Left-arm spinner Harmeet Singh comes into the attack early. Dhaliwal gets his second boundary with a beautiful leg drive and is denied a third by a superb stop at backward point by Steven Taylor.
3rd over: Canada 34-0 (Johnson 21, Dhaliwal 7) Ali Khan’s second over is gone for 17! Four successive deliveries went to the boundary – three off Johnson’s bat, the other over his helmet as an offended Ali Khan sent a sharp shot.
The best shot was a wrist shot over cover, the ball after Ali Khan had hit him on the helmet. Johnson has 21 off just 10 balls.
2nd over: Canada 17-0 (Johnson 9, Dhaliwal 7) Tall left-arm fast Saurabh Netrawalkar shares the new ball. His second ball is too wide and hit squarely to the backward point boundary by Dhaliwal.
Early signs are that this is a very good batting pitch. Dhaliwal switches around the wicket and finds some movement to Johnson, who flicks it past low third man for four.
1st over: Canada 6-0 (Johnson 4, Dhaliwal 1) Ali Khan bowls the first ball of the contest to Aaron Johnson, who hammers it eagerly through extra cover for four. It’s a gut-wrenching statement of intent.
Khan is a good bowler, slick and sharp, and he bowled Navnett Dhaliwal later in the over. Dhaliwal muscles one to mid on to get off the mark.
This is a very good start from Ali Khan. There was nothing wrong with the delivery that Johnson belted for four and everything else was on the money.
It’s almost time for the first ball of 2024 T20 World Cup. Watch out for Aaron Johnson, Canada’s first player to hit the mile ball.
Players line up for the anthems, which are sung sweetly by some and a little shyly by others. Some of the players on both sides look really nervous. And so they should: most of them are about to play the biggest game of their careers to date.
“Sweltering Toronto evening, Rob,” writes Guy Hornsby. “It seems strange to think about T20 World Cup it starts not far from my time zone. Here’s to a good and also decent opener. Finally there are at least enough teams to see the best of the contributors too, which makes me very happy. Although I haven’t seen a single reference to the game while I’ve been here.
“Anyway, after Yuvi’s distinctly boring Good Morning America slot, this is pretty well done, so come on America, you need some cricket in your life!”
Wait, did you move to Toronto?
The opening ceremony is quite modest, still no sign of Diana Ross breaking the stumps or anything like that. It’s hard to get an idea of the crowd on TV coverage, although I’m sure that will become clearer once the game starts.
A beginner’s guide to this cricket thing
The question of whether cricket can beat Americacliché, it seems unlikely to get a response (not least on a subscription channel, Willow TV), although this T20 World Cup is not a one-off moonshot, but rather a shoulder to the wheel of a wider push.
“Match referee Richie Richardson is older than me” writes Gary Naylor. “How can it look so good?”
Kombucha and 500 squats a day obviously.
The teams
USA Taylor, Monanck (c/s), Gus, A Jones, Nitish, Anderson, Harmeet, Van Schalkwyk, Jasdeep, Netrawalkar, Ali Khan.
Canada A Johnson, Dhaliwal, Pargat, Kirton, Movwa (f), Bajwa, Saad Zafar (c), Dutta, Heyliger, Kaleem, Gordon.
USA wins the toss and bowl
Skipper Monank Patel feels that a new wicket will help his players at the start. Also, everyone loves a T20 chase.
Valley Ranch is just as much America as any other corner of the country, and young Americans here love it just as much as kids in other neighborhoods play basketball or baseball or any of the other games everyone else will be watching this weekend.
So, about that game in 1844
Everyone has their own stories of how they ended up here playing for the USA. Some came because their parents wanted a better life, others to study, others for money. Ali Khan sends some of his earnings back to his old village of Jafar in Pakistan, where he dreams of one day building a new cricket ground
What’s next on this list: Johannesburg, Lord’s, Guyana, Hambantota, Dhaka, Nagpur, Abu Dhabi, Sydney. The answer, of course, is Dallas, as these have been the opening venues for the eight T20 World Cups to date.
Until recently, the idea of a Cricket World Cup starting in America would have sent them rolling in the aisles, but then so did football before 1994.
Tonight’s opener between the USA and Canada is a step into the future and the past. USA vs. Canada is the oldest cricket match of all, dating back to 1844, a fact we know because it was quoted within an inch of its life in the build-up to this game. And while we can’t see into the future, there’s never been more pressure to make cricket a small but steady part of American life.
Premier League Cricket is growing at a rapid pace, the USA is hosting the World Cup – and they have a team that could surprise a lot of people in the next few weeks. They beat Bangladesh 2-1 in a warm-up series and their squad is a comfortable mix of naturalized players like Corey Anderson and homegrown talent like Steven Taylor.
They also have Nitish Kumar, who played 18 T20 internationals for Canada between 2012 and 2019 before moving to the US and eventually qualifying to play for them. It adds some spice to an already spicy rivalry, as does the fact that brilliant Sri Lankan Pubudu Dasanayake, once the USA coach, is now doing the same job for Canada.
Tonight’s winner has an outside chance of qualifying from a group that also includes India, Pakistan and Ireland. But a match like this exists in its own right: as a competition and an event.
Rob will be here shortly. Meanwhile, here’s Andy Bull on the state of cricket in the US:
Skyscrapers in Manhattan are built on cricket pitches. There was one under Pier 17 at the East River Seaport, another under Central Park’s North Lawn, and a third right at 1st Avenue and East 32nd Street, under the NYU Langone Medical Center parking lot.
In 1844, a crowd of about 5,000 New Yorkers watched the first international game there, between the United States and Canada. “Cricket was the first modern team sport in America,” says Chuck Ramkissoon, c To Joseph O’Neill great new york novel holland, ” bona fide american entertainment.” He’s right. It was, once.
There were dozens, even hundreds of clubs in the US in the mid-19th century. Historians have never settled on a single reason why cricket died there. The Civil War was one factor. “We had a great number of good young men playing the game up to then, and then the fever of war got the better of them,” wrote one player in the American Cricketer in the early 20th century.
Baseball was an easier game for the soldiers because it did not require a rolled wicket, specialized training or equipment. When it was turned professional in 1869, it was packaged and marketed as a Native American sport. The Patriots game.
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