Under the leadership of Monank Patel, the co-host United States of America (USA) began their campaign for the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup 2024, on a positive note with a seven-wicket victory over Canda in the 198-run chase, with 14 balls to spare.
Opting to bowl first at the Gran Prairie Stadium in Dallas, USA restricted the Canada side to 194/5, in their allotted 20 overs, as opener Navneet Dhaliwal, and middle order batter Nicholas Kirton celebrated their respective half-centuries.
The US side was under a bit of pressure as they were struggling from the beginning at 42/2 in the seventh over, as the captain- Monank Patel went back in the hut after his run-a-ball 16-run knock. Andre Gous was playing well, but the momentum shifted when Aaron Jones, after struggling a little towards the beginning looked to smash the bowlers all around the park.
The latter’s unbeaten 94-run knock in 40 balls, shouldering on four boundaries and 10 sixes helped them start the ninth edition of the competition with a bang.
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‘We will focus on experienced Mohmmad Amir’ – Monank Patel
Going into their second game of the tournament at the same ground against Pakistan, the American team are ahead in understanding the conditions and the dimensions of the ground little better than Pakistan, who hardly have any experience of playing in this country as a team.
The co-hosts are also boosted by the way they came into the competition after their 2-1 series victory over Bangladesh, who looked poor in all three departments of the game during that three-match series.
USA captain Monank Patel has aimed to focus on the team’s strength of being aggressive and fearless against the 2009 champions. The Indian-origin trusts that they can continue to keep their winning campaign intact in the tournament.
He highlighted how they need to tackle Pakistan’s veteran bowler left-arm pacer, Mohammad Amir, who will be a threat for them, especially with the new ball in hand.
“The first game definitely helped us. We got good momentum. We will make sure that we carry forward that momentum in the next game. Pakistan is a good side, is a well-experienced side and well will make sure that we play cricket that we have been playing,” the USA captain Monank Patel expressed during the pre-match press conference.
“Pakistan has good experienced bowlers. We will focus on Mohammad Amir, who is an experienced Pakistan bowler, we will try to tackled him well.”
The Gujrat-born also knows the importance of the Pakistan’s opener and their captain Babar Azam, and how important it is to send him back early in the dressing room.
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“Babar is a great batsman in all the formats. He is the main player and he is the captain. If he plays long innings we have see in the past also,” the 31-year-old Monank Patel said. “So yeah, his wicket will be really important for us and we all know his stats. He’s been very consistent in T20s.”
Rather than looking at how the opposition plays, it’s always the smartest job to see how their team have become successful and Monank vows to take care of their own plans rather than being overly concerned about the Men in Green.
“I mean, we won’t focus much on the Pakistan side. We want to focus on our own cricket. And we want to make sure that we continue playing the way we’ve been playing,” the wicket-keeping batter Monank Patel concluded. “And you know, it’s T20. Once we have a good 30-40 minutes in the field, you never know. We can take the game away.”
It will be the first contest between these two teams in the shortest format of the game.