Jones played the unexpected
hero on the night with great flair, throwing the spotlight on himself and - the
hope remains - on cricket in the USA
It worked. The rain
stayed away. The tickets were sold. And USA Won. American cricket needed
this.
It was only four days ago that USA Cricket announced an "exclusive ticketing opportunity" where members could buy up to six tickets for 25% off. The game wasn't a sell-out, clearly, and they were keenly trying to offload tickets to everyone and anyone,
And when ticketing was not the issue, it was the weather. Storms and flash-flood warnings have been ever-present this week in Dallas. Six hours before kick-off, another storm rolled through. Fears of cricket's big opening night in America being remembered as the evening an empty stadium got rained on were manifesting,
Then Aaron
jones came along.
The hero of the evening, his remarkable career-best innings catapulted the USA to victory from a position where it looked unlikely at best and impossible at worst. From 42 for 2 in the seventh over, Jones and Andries Gous put on 131 runs in 58 balls to ice the chase in the most relentless and brutal of fashions,
Jones' 94 not out off 40 deliveries was entirely out of keeping with his career. Arriving at the crease, he had a T20 career strike rate of 104, with 13 sixes in 24 innings. His highest score was 50, his only half-century in the format. But less than an hour later, he left having struck 10 sixes in a match-winning, legacy-defining, innings of history.
0 comments:
Post a Comment