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The first ever ICC tournament match to be played in the United States will take place this weekend as ICC T20 World Cup co-hosts USA take on their neighbours to the north Canada to kick off the month-long competition.
DATE/TIME: UK – Sunday 2nd
June, 2024 – 01:30 / INDIA – Sunday 2nd June, 2024 – 06:00 / Pakistan – Sunday 2nd June, 2024 – 06:00 / Bangladesh – Sunday 2nd
June, 2024 – 06:30 / West Indies – Saturday 1st June, 2024 – 19:30 / Australia – Sunday 2nd June, 2024 – 10:30 / South Africa – Sunday 2nd
June, 2024 – 02:30 / US EST – Saturday 1st June, 2024 – 20:30 / US PST – Saturday 1st June, 2024 -18:30
VENUE: Grand Prairie Stadium, Grand Prairie, Texas, United States
WEATHER: Throughout the weekend in New York, there is expected to be highs of around 27 or 28 degrees Celsius and it will still be hot at the Nassau County International Stadium at 20:30 on Saturday 1st June when this match starts with temperatures of between 22 and 24 degrees Celsius and clear skies.
HOW TO WATCH ON TV: This match will be shown live on Sky Sports in the UK, Star Sports in India and Disney Star in Bangladesh, Willow in the United States, PTV Sports and Ten Sports in Pakistan, ESPN Caribbean in the West Indies and SuperSport in South Africa. It will not be televised live in Australia, though.
HOW TO WATCH ONLINE: This match will be streamed live via Sky Sports on the Sky Go app in the UK, Disney+Hotstar website in both India and Bangladesh, Willow TV’s website in the United States, Myco and Tamasha in Pakistan, ESPN Play Caribbean’s app in the West Indies, SuperSport’s app in South Africa and Amazon Prime Video in Australia.
USA
FORM: BOLSTERING THE SQUAD & BOOSTING THE SPORT
USA Cricket has embarked upon an ambitious project in recent years, which has involved the launch of Major League Cricket as well as ‘naturalising’ players to play for the United States national team. 2019 England World Cup winner Liam Plunkett had suggested he would be open to it but that hasn’t come to fruition but Corey Anderson, who has one of the best bowling strike rates in Cricket World Cup history, and was a key all-rounder for New Zealand when they finished as runners’ up in the 50-over tournament is in the squad. Former South Africa international Rusty Theron is also in the squad.
The international experienced peppered through the squad and the development of the national team has been timed well as they kick off a home tournament with a real chance to make a statement, as they did in a recent series against Bangladesh. Now veterans of ICC tournaments, Bangladesh’s squad is perhaps in a state of decline but it was still a major surprise to see USA pull off a surprise 2-1 defeat of them in a recent T20 series.
LAST FIVE: LWWWW
CANADA
FORM: DROPPING IN THE RANKINGS
That aforementioned United States defeat of Bangladesh came on the back of essentially hammering a poor Canadian side in a five-match series last month. With one game abandoned without a ball being bowled due to poor weather at the Prairie View Cricket Complex, the USA won all of the other four matches that were played and that has contributed to Canada coming into this one with a few concerns.
According to the ICC’s T20 international rankings, Canada were above the United States up until the latest rankings released earlier this week whereby the Canadians have slipped down to 23rd and the USA have risen to 19th. Two of the key men for Canada at this tournament will be Guyana-born fast bowler Jeremy Gordon, albeit he is now 37, and Jamaica-born batter Aaron Johnson. 37-year-old slow left-arm orthodox bowler and captain Saad Bin Zafar will also be essential for the Maple Leafers. After being hammered by the US, they did recently defeat Nepal by 63 runs in an impressive warm-up victory on Monday.
LAST FIVE: WLLLL
USA BETTING ANALYSIS
The United States head into the clash as favourites and whilst a few of their more experienced players are all-rounders or bowlers, a solid bet would still be to back them to have the highest opening partnership in the match with former Canadian international Nitish Kumar heading into the tournament in good nick at the top of the order.
CANADA BETTING ANALYSIS
In a game in which the top order faltered quite badly against Nepal the other day, all-rounder Ravinderpal Singh came in and smashed 41 runs in 17 balls to propel them to a score of 183 so backing him to be their top scorer in the match would seem a good bet. Singh was not involved in the aforementioned series against the US, though, and with the likes of Aaron Johnson, Pargat Singh, Shreyas Movva and Dilpreet Bajwa all seemingly out of form at the moment; backing an unders bet for Canada’s score would also seem sensible.
USA
VS CANADA EXPERT
PREDICTION
This is a meeting between two associates to kick off a very intriguing T20 World Cup and whilst that may be uninspiring for the neutral generally, there is the chance we see the start of something special brewing in Texas as what could be jokingly described as the United States’ all-star world XI looking to put some pressure on the likes of Ireland and a faltering Pakistan in Group A. Canada are not pushovers, as they showed against Nepal, but the form of the US would suggest they should come out on top in this opener.
USA VS CANADA TIP: USA TO WIN