Bridgetown (Barbados), June 22 (IANS) After being on the verge of exit from the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup 2024 after a nine-wicket defeat to West Indies, the USA captain Aaron Jones said his team will go all out against England to finish their tournament on a high note.
The USA entered the Super Eight stage in what is also their first T20 World Cup campaign, after defeating Pakistan and Canada in Group A. But in Group 2 of the Super Eight, the USA are currently at the bottom of the standings with no points against their name and will face England at the Kensington Oval in Barbados on Sunday.
“I don’t think (there) is any pressure. I think when we first started the World Cup a lot of people didn’t think that we would be here right now. Obviously, we always believed, even before the World Cup started, that we could beat any team in the world.”
“And as I say, every time you put on your jersey and you go and play for your country, you want to win. So definitely we want to win the game against England and finish well, although we can’t advance in the next round for sure.”
“For me personally, I will go into the game just looking to win the game and doing as best as possible as a team and me personally as well. And then let’s see what happens after that,” said Jones to ICC after the match ended.
Asked to highlight the importance of the USA’s stellar campaign in the tournament where nine associate teams competed, Jones explained, “I think the game against England is important. For me personally, every time I put on a US jersey, I want to win the game, regardless of who we’re playing against.
“I think over the last couple of weeks, starting from winning the series against Bangladesh, it really and truly opened the eyes of everybody in the world, not only for US cricket but associate cricket in general.”
“And then obviously moving on to beating Pakistan in the World Cup, and then having a close game against India and then a close game against South Africa. People know that associate cricket is on the rise I would say.”
Similar views were echoed by head coach Stuart Law in his post-match press conference. “Look, I think Associate cricket is one of the toughest formats going around. I remember going to Zimbabwe with West Indies to the World Cup qualifiers, the 50-over World Cup qualifiers to watch, to go there. It’s a brutal tournament.”
“If those guys play those tournaments quite often, they’re going to be pretty relaxed playing something like a World Cup where you get a game and then you have a day, maybe four days off. In those qualifiers, you get game, day off, game, day off. So, it’s brutal.”
“The way that Scotland nearly would have been great to see that game play out against England. They could have pushed them hard. But the Associated Nations shouldn’t be discounted either. We’re trying to grow the game of cricket. It’s called the World Cup. I think the 20-team format was done pretty well.”
–IANS
nr/bsk/
