Cricket World Cup off to exciting start with U.S. setting a hot pace

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One couldn’t have asked for a more electrifying start to this great American experiment.

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The fireworks came from one of their own players as the U.S. got off to a flying start in the World Twenty20 Cup.

Then mighty West Indies, co-hosting the tournament with the U.S., was expected to follow suit, instead it was made to sweat by little-known Papua New Guinea before collecting a hard-earned victory.

There were thrills and spills galore on the first weekend and one can expect more pyrotechnics during this month as cricket tries to get a foothold on American soil.

This bang-and-bash format of the game has normally seen batsmen hold the upper-hand, but South African speedster Anrich Nortje destroyed that rationale by demolishing Sri Lanka in New York with a haul of four wickets for seven runs in his four overs.

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On the first weekend, the talk centred around Aaron Jones, a pocket dynamo who was born in Queens, NY, before moving with his parents to Barbados, where he honed his batting skills. In typical Caribbean fashion, Jones plundered an unbeaten 94 — a figure that included 10 sixes and four fours — as the home team ran away with a comfortable seven-wicket triumph over Canada in the opener.

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Canada was by no means embarrassed by this result as it posted a huge 194 for five. In fact, this encounter between the two oldest rivals in the sport was in the balance until Jones turned the game on its head off 40 balls and he received superb support from Andries Gous, who clobbered 65 off 46 balls as the U.S. sent the 6,000 in the stands into a frenzy.

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Canada received solid knocks by Navneet Dhaliwal, who clobbered 61 with three sixes and six fours in his 44-ball innings, and Nicholas Kirton, who had three fours and two sixes in his 31-ball stay at the wicket.

Late in the innings, Shreyas Movva weighed in with 32 and that Canadian total appeared formidable.

Even Canada captain Saad Bin Zafar believed that, saying: “I thought it was a great total and I was quite confident at the time. But the two U.S. batsmen then took the game away from us with exceptional batting and our bowlers had no answer for them.”

Next stop for Canada is New York on Friday, where it faces Ireland before wrapping the first-round matches versus the giants of the game, India and Pakistan, at the same venue.

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Bin Zafar promised Canada will continue playing attacking cricket and he is confident that it can defeat the Irish.

“We have beaten them before and I believe we can do it again,” he said.

But the pitch in New York is coming under fire after Sri Lanka was skittled out for a meagre 77 with South Africa’s pace attack proving too fiery for the islanders.

Nortje was well-supported by Kagiso Rabada (two for 22), Ottneil Baartman (one for nine) and spinner Keshav Maharaj taking two for 22. South Africa struggled before running out a winner by six wickets.

But spare a thought for the Sri Lankans, who have been given the go-around by the organizers. The squad was held up at the Miami airport for seven hours before boarding the flight to New York. After landing in the Big Apple, they couldn’t practise as their hotel was located about a two-hour drive away and that meant battling New York traffic.

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On match day against South Africa, the players had to be up by 5.30 a.m. for the trek to the stadium. Sri Lanka and the Netherlands have been dealt a tough hand of playing their four first-round matches at four separate locations.

The 34,000-seat modular Nassau County Stadium that is situated 30 miles from Manhattan had the turf cultivated in Adelaide, Australia, and shipped 14,000 miles for this extravaganza. Hopefully the wicket will play true on Sunday when more than a billion viewers will have their eyes focused on the match between neighbours India and Pakistan.

Tickets for this encounter sold out nearly immediately when they went on sale in February. There are a few ducats available for the Diamond
Club for $10,000 US and the Premium Club Lounge for $2,500. These are hospitality tickets that include food and beverages.

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Other tickets for cricket’s biggest rivalry were pegged between $300 to $600 and these are now selling at exorbitant prices starting at $1,700.

Meanwhile, India sees action on Wednesday against Ireland and one can expect the New York venue to be filled to capacity as the city has a huge Irish population who will be out there all decked out in green.

Security also has been beefed up for all matches in New York and this includes positioning police snipers around the ground.

Check out our sports section for the latest news and analysis.

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