The co-hosts United States of America kicked off their ICC T20 World Cup 2024 with a memorable win over Canada in the curtain-raiser clash in Dallas on Saturday, June 1. The star batter Aaron Jones played the best innings of his career by smashing 94* off just 40 balls as the USA chased down a 195-run target with seven wickets and 14 balls remaining.
Playing in the ICC tournament for the first time, the USA displayed their hunger to grab the attention on the first day of the tournament. Aaron led the charge by smashing four fours and ten sixes to script a couple of major World Cup records.
Aaron, 29, scored runs at a strike rate of 235.00 to break Yuvraj Singh's record for the highest strike rate in an innings in the T20 World Cup history. The former Indian cricketer took the 2007 T20 World Cup by storm by smashing the fastest fifty against England where he recorded six consecutive sixes in an over against England.
Yuvraj played a similar explosive innings against Australia in the semi-final clash where he smashed 70 runs at a strike rate of 233.33. Yuvraj held that record for 17 years till Aaron Jones' carnage against Canada on Saturday.
Highest strike rate in an innings in T20 World Cup (Played a minimum of 30 balls)
- 235.00 - Aaron Jones (USA) vs Canada in 2024
- 233.33 - Yuvraj Singh (IND) vs Australia in 2007
- 232.35 - AB de Villiers (SA) vs Scotland in 2009
- 225.00 - Curtis Campher (IRE) vs Scotland in 2022
- 224.24 - Glenn Maxwell (AUS) vs Pakistan in 20214
- 221.87 - Jos Buttler (ENG) vs Australia in 2021
Meanwhile, Jones also scripted the record for the highest individual score by an Associate nation player in tournament history. The American vice-captain broke Scottish star Michael Jones' 86-run record against Ireland in the 2022 edition.