The opening match of the T20 World Cup sees the co-hosts USA taking on Canada in the latest renewal of one of the longest running rivalries in cricket when they get the tournament underway in Dallas, weather permitting.
These two sides are playing in their first T20 World Cup and both will be keen to grace their arrival to the tournament with a win as they will each know that the likes of India and Pakistan lie waiting for them later in the Group A phase.
USA
As you would imagine, the USA have been steadily building towards this tournament and took plenty of headlines just over a week ago when they shocked Bangladesh in a warm up match. That was a good thing for their confidence heading into the tournament but it might not have done them any favours because they are unlikely to be able to go under the radar as much as they would have wanted to after such a result.
It isn’t a surprise that American cricket is improving. Major League Cricket is slowly becoming a bigger force in the game and the sport is gaining in profile in the country, with this tournament only going to help with that, especially if USA can be competitive. America have some bowlers who will be a threat, certainly in this match, if not the whole of the time they are in the competition so if their batting can hold its own we should be a decent showing from America.
Canada
This is the first time that Canada will have graced this tournament but they have been at the 50 over competition in the past so they kind of know what it is all about. Canada are actually the lowest ranked side in the competition according to the ICC rankings so they are going to have to play above themselves to get anything from their showings in the tournament. They will know the task only gets harder after this game so they will be eager to show up here.
Canada do have a couple of batters at the top of the order who can put the opposition bowling under pressure and if they get away from America then it could set the Canucks up for a strong showing here, especially as the home side are the ones carrying all of the pressure into the match with them. Canada will probably look to attack with a largely spin based attack but the amount of rain that has been around in Dallas could hamper that idea.
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Team News
It looks like Corey Anderson will get his first tournament outing for USA in this match making him the fifth player to play for two different teams in a T20 World Cup. Ali Khan and Steven Taylor are other recognisable names in this side.
Aaron Johnson has been making a name for himself in the Associate ranks for his high strike rate in T20 cricket and he’ll be a key man for Canada here with the captain Saad Bin Zafar also needing to offer a big performance.
Betting
Corey Anderson scored 28 and 55 in T20 internationals for USA back in April so I’m a little surprised that we have a performance line for this match of just 23.5 for the former New Zealand international. He is as experienced as they come as a cricketer having played 167 T20s of all kinds and nearly 100 international matches across the course of his career. He is a good batter in this format of the game but you would imagine he’ll get some overs with the ball as well.
Anderson will be a key player in the field for USA as well so he is what I call a 3D cricketer and with some of his teammates bound to be nervous they might need the experienced player to play a bigger role than he might otherwise do in this match. His strike rate in the matches he has played for USA has been notably lower than in his other cricket which means he is taking on the responsibility of controlling the innings. In this company I would expect Anderson to go beyond 23.5pts in this one.
Tips
Back C.Anderson’s Performance – Over 23.5 points for a 3/10 stake at 1.83 with Bet365
