NEW DELHI: In the landmark
T20 World Cup
opener against
Canada
, New Yorker
Aaron Jones
hoped his brilliant performance would "open the eyes of those who don't know me or
USA cricket
." Jones' 40-ball 94 led his team to a convincing seven-wicket victory over Canada, marking a strong start to their campaign in a tournament they are hosting for the first time, alongside the West Indies.
Jones, whose spot in the T20I side was questioned and was released by
Major League Cricket
(MLC) franchise Seattle Orcas after its inaugural edition, stated that his performance demonstrated he was "good enough" to compete at the highest level. He was not selected in the last
MLC
draft.
"When I wasn't selected in the Major League, I just took it as a stepping stone in the journey," he said. "I would have loved to get drafted, so it goes sometimes. Hopefully tonight's innings will probably open the eyes of those who don't know me or USA cricket. We have great players here and that we have a lot of talent here and are willing to play at the highest level for sure."
Facing a target of 195, USA stumbled early, losing opener Steven Taylor for a duck in just the second ball of the innings, leaving them at 42/2 after 6.3 overs. However, Jones had different plans as he launched into a counter-attacking innings to engineer a remarkable victory with 14 balls to spare.
"I don't think it is easy to put it into words. We know Canada come hard against us since it is a big rivalry. Happy to take the team over the line," said Jones.
Jones's innings was highlighted by 10 sixes, the second-highest number in a T20 World Cup innings, behind West Indian
Chris Gayle
's 11 against England in 2016.
"Sometimes as a cricketer, you could go a bit under the radar if you have a few low scores," Jones said. "I always back myself and know that I am capable of performing at every level. (I am) happy that I came out on top and won the game for USA. Hope it opens the eyes of some people around the world that I am good enough to play T20 cricket. I believe in myself, I work hard and I just use (criticism) as motivation. I know that I'm good enough to play at the highest level, and whenever given the opportunity, I'll do my best for sure."
"When I went out to bat tonight, I just saw it as another game to fight for me and bring my team as close as possible to the line, and if we get as close as possible to the line and over the line, it's great for the team."
Despite the setback of losing two early wickets, Jones expressed confidence in chasing down the total with their deep batting lineup. He found support in Andries Gous, who contributed 65 runs off 46 balls in a crucial 131-run partnership with Jones.
"With our batting line-up, knew anything under 200 is chaseable. Outfield and pitch were good and we knew that," said Jones after USA's highest run chase in T20Is.
USA's next match is against Pakistan at the same venue on Thursday, followed by a game against India in ten days' time, while Canada will face Ireland in New York on Friday. Jones emphasized that they will maintain their fearless approach to cricket.
"We just want to keep winning as much as possible, of course we can't win every single game for the rest of our lives. I don't think our plan (for the rest of the tournament) is going to change much. We want to play fearless cricket, we want to play hard cricket, we want to play smart cricket. We are going into the Pakistan game with the same mindset. We want to play fearless cricket, regardless of who we play against."
All praise for Jones, USA skipper
Monank Patel
said: "We've always known, he has the game. He played fearless cricket and backing his shots. It was clean hitting. We want to continue the way we are playing. Don't want to change our fearless cricket whether we play Pakistan or India."
Calling it a team effort, Patel said: "The way we've been playing against Canada in previous series, I thought it was a whole team effort."
(Inputs from PTI)
English (US) ·