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In the last two days, the Associate has struck twice. Group A is currently producing the incredible performances, despite Group C and D perhaps being the groups of death prior to the T20 World Cup in 2024. Following Pakistan’s stunning victory over the USA in Dallas on Thursday, Canada stunned a Full Member team on Friday by defeating Ireland by 12 runs in New York to win the T20 World Cup for the first time ever.
In New York, all eyes were on the surface. Although things didn’t go well for Canada at first, Nicholas Kirton and Shreyas Movva steadied the ship, helping them to 137 for 7 in their 20 overs. This World Cup, this was the first time a team had crossed the 100-run barrier in New York in five innings. It turned out to be sufficient.
Earlier, Ireland appeared to have a strong chance of winning as their bowlers were finding movement and carry. Before Craig Young sent Aaron Johnson back, caught at deep backward square leg, Adair had Navneet Dhaliwal caught at backward point. Despite hitting six fours during the powerplay, Canada was only able to reach 37 for 2 after the first six because of a lack of strike rotation.
Following the powerplay, Young also scored quickly, dismissing Pargat Singh. Delany then trapped and bowled Dilpreet Bajwa, bringing Canada’s score after 8.1 overs to 53 for 4.
Kirton has recently been playing fantastic T20I cricket. He had hit two fifties in the World Cup opener, one against the USA and the other against Nepal in Canada’s warm-up match. And in New York, he got off to a similar start. He steadied the Canada innings alongside Movva, then went off in the last five.
ahead with the pair as they added 75 runs for the fifth wicket off 63 balls, Movva continued to chugg ahead. Kirton missed a second half-century, but Movva remained in the game until the very end, helping Canada record the greatest score in the T20 World Cup in New York.
Chasing 138 on an uneven pitch with a lethargic outfield was always going to be difficult. The early movement was not well controlled by Kaleem Sana, which did not bode well for Canada’s defence. However, Gordon was aware of the risks involved in bowling on the surface right away, and the other bowlers adopted this strategy as well. In the first six overs, Ireland could only muster two fours, one in the opening over and one in the sixth.
In the last over of the powerplay, Stirling could only get a top edge on his attempted heave, with the wicketkeeper making an easy catch thanks to Gordon’s unrelenting lengths. After he fell for an unusual 9 off 17, Ireland’s innings took a turn for the worst.
For the next seven overs or so, Ireland was completely outmatched by Canada, who had no idea how to pursue the ball. Attacking the stumps, Saad and Siddiqui gave the batters very little to work with. In the second half, the surface appeared to slow down a little, and the two spinners made sure to take its toll.
Ireland required a miracle to win this match, as the equation read 64 off 30 after 15 overs and just four wickets remained to be claimed. In the sixteenth over, Dockrell gave Ireland a chance by hitting Siddiqui for a four and a six, and in the following over, Adair achieved a similar feat against Sana. But Heyliger held his composure and gave up just eight runs in the eighteenth over.
After Sana’s 19th wicket fell for 11, Gordon had to defend 16 runs in the last over. And with skill, too. Adair had no control over the hard-length stuff; there were no whole balls. And there were celebrations in the Canadadugout when Dockrell mistimed his heave to long-on off the final ball.