19 April, 2024
Canada was left licking some self-inflicted wounds in the final T20I of the five-match series against the U.S., losing by four wickets to hand the Americans a resounding 4-0 series victory. The third match was rained out.
Winning the toss and electing to bat first, Canada’s innings moved along at a steady if not brisk pace through the first 12 overs before 77 runs off the final eight overs took the team to a solid 168/5. Harsh Thaker top scored with 38 off 24 while both Aaron Johnson and Dilpreet Bajwa contributed 33 each in fairly quick time. Captain Saad Bin Zafar had a handy cameo at the end with 20 off 13 as well.
Poor fielding really let the Canadians down when it was time to bowl as the U.S. were able to escape from a precarious 9/3 after 1.2 overs courtesy a dropped catch, a missed run out, and some misfields, to complete the chase with two balls to spare.
Corey Anderson and Nitish Kumar added a team-T20I record 104 for the fourth wicket off 72 balls to turn the match in the United States’ favour while some handy blows from the bats of Harmeet Singh and Nisarg Patel wrapped up the proceedings. Kumar was named Player of the Match for his 64 off 38 deliveries. The U.S.’s Harmeet Singh was named Player of the Series for taking six wickets including a stellar all-round performance in the fourth match with 4-for-18 and 34 not out.
Here are takeaways from the series as a whole:
BATTING GOES AS JOHNSON GOES
Aaron Johnson’s value to the side as an explosive opener became all the more apparent as his notable contributions resulted in much better tallies in the first 10 overs compared to when he didn’t.
When Johnson scored 74(40) and 33(23), Canada finished with 199 and 168, respectively. When he was dismissed for 16 and 1, the team finished with 132 and 145, respectively. His success at the top of the order has a huge bearing on Canada’s scoring rate but the challenge lies in finding answers to scoring big when he doesn’t score much.
Johnson’s powerful ball striking comes with a decent level of risk but the potential rewards are worth it.
IDEAL T20 BATTING ORDER REMAINS IN QUESTION
On that note, one big question this series has posed is what the ideal T20 batting lineup should be?
Canada started the series with the same batting lineup that came away with four straight ODI wins against the U.A.E. and Scotland, and while the strengths in that format are obvious, the batting in the middle overs across the series could stand to improve its impetus. Six-hitting has become a crucial aspect of T20 batting and while Canada nearly matched U.S.A. in the four-hitting department with 58 fours to America’s 61, the red and white finished with 23 sixes to the U.S.’s 32. Johnson accounted for nine of Canada’s 23 sixes.
Batting at No. 3, Pargat Singh’s struggles didn’t help matters. He scored 62 runs across the four matches for an average of 15.40 at a strike rate of 92.54. Nicholas Kirton failed to capitalize on starts throughout the series, crossing the 20-run mark three times but unable to cross 30. He was unlucky in the final match, showing good intent with three quality hits to the fence in 11 balls but was run out after some miscommunication with Harsh Thaker at the other end. A quality batter who also happens to be left-handed, Kirton is a crucial piece of Canada’s batting puzzle.
Srimantha Wijeyeratne was dismissed for single digits in each of the three matches he opened while Navneet Dhaliwal was excluded from the XI after the opening two matches where he was out for a duck and six. Shreyas Movva was given one chance and fell for a golden duck but his batting style has the potential to fit in perfectly with the game as we know it today, filled with scoop shots and reverse sweeps. To this point in his career, though, he strikes at 102 in T20s and 75 in the one-day format.
Dilpreet Bajwa showed what he’s capable of in two opportunities, scoring 52 off 41 as an opener on Friday and then quickly adjusting to shifting down to No. 6 on Saturday and producing 33 runs off 24 runs with four fours and a six.
FIELDING MUST IMPROVE
In the fifth and final match, Dilon Heyliger should have had Nitish Kumar dismissed on 10 after he flicked a ball straight to Harsh Thaker at deep square leg but the straightforward catch was dropped.
Canada could have had Kumar run out for 22(15) as well. Corey Anderson inside edged a delivery from Saad Bin Zafar to Uday Bhagwan at short fine leg and Kumar raced down the pitch thinking there was a single.
With Anderson completely uninterested, Bhagwan collected the ball with Kumar three quarters of the pitch down but unfortunately threw the ball well over Bin Zafar’s head at the bowler’s end and the chance was gone. The U.S. still needed 108 to win off 70 deliveries at that stage and Kumar went on to add another 42 runs off 23 deliveries.
There were some costly mistakes in the second match of this series as well, and T20 is a format where every run can make a difference. When you look at sides that are able to spring surprises in big tournaments, it’s usually because they keep the self-inflicted wounds to a minimum. The Netherlands have been a prime example of that in recent years and Canada could learn from that.
YOUNG NEW BALL BOWLERS LEARNING ON THE FLY
Uday Bhagwan is turning 23 in a couple of weeks and Rishiv Joshi is 23. This was a big opportunity to learn for them and sometimes you have to take the lumps in stride and become better players because of it.
Bhagwan finished his four matches with two wickets and an economy rate of 9.91 while Joshi also took two wickets but was even more expensive at 10.39 runs per over. Discipline and consistency are key areas of development for any youngster and these two are no different.
REALITY CHECK CAN BE A POSITIVE
While there will no doubt be plenty of disappointment over losing the series 4-0, some of the weaknesses exposed and questions Canada will be forced to ask itself can be crucial to improving over the next few months and putting its best foot forward at the World Cup.
The team would have been on Cloud 9 after the way things went in the ICC ODI World Cup League 2 matches in Dubai, and this shows how different a ball game T20 cricket can be.
Re-tool, re-sharpen, and get back out there.
