In one of the most stunning upsets in international cricket history, the United States upended Pakistan in the group stage of the T20 World Cup.
The match, played Thursday at Grand Prairie Stadium near Dallas, saw the U.S. team get the four it needed on the final ball of regulation to send the match to a super over. At that point, Pakistan might have been expected to flex its superiority as a traditional power in the sport. But the favorites made a number of mistakes in allowing the Americans to score 18 runs while batting first.
With an immense amount of pressure on him to hold Pakistan below that total, U.S. bowler Saurabh Netravalkar allowed just 13, with the help of a terrific catch by Nitish Kumar. When Pakistan’s Shadab Khan, needing six on the final ball to send the match to another super over, hit just a single, the U.S. team erupted in pandemonium.
“It’s a huge achievement,” U.S. captain Monank Patel said. “For us to beat Pakistan, we are playing them for the first time, I am just so proud of how we played.”
Suddenly, after defeating Canada in the World Cup opener, the United States is a threat to reach the quarterfinals of its first international T20 tournament. The country began playing the streamlined version of cricket at its highest level in 2019, and it qualified for this year’s World Cup by virtue of co-hosting the tournament with the West Indies.
Pakistan, by contrast, won the tournament in 2009, two years after finishing as the runner-up when the T20 World Cup was first staged by the International Cricket Council. Pakistan was also the runner-up in the 2022 World Cup, falling to England in the final, and it has reached the semifinals three other times.
The result Thursday puts all the more of a spotlight on the highly anticipated match between Pakistan and archrival India, set for Sunday in New York City-adjacent Nassau County. If Pakistan loses, it will desperately need to win its remaining group-stage matches against Canada and Ireland and may still need help to advance.
“It’s early in the tournament — we will come back from this,” Pakistan captain Babar Azam said. “Yes, our task ahead is hard. But credit to USA, they performed so well today. They were better than us in all aspects of the game.”
USA have just beaten Pakistan in a game of T20 Cricket at the World Cup. Genuinely never thought I’d ever see that fixture, never mind that result. One of the biggest upsets, if not the biggest upset, in cricket history. Wow. #T20WorldCup
— Aatif Nawaz (@AatifNawaz) June 6, 2024
The only team in its five-nation group to have played two matches, the United States unexpectedly sits atop the quintet. The Americans, who came into Thursday ranked 18th by the ICC while Pakistan was ranked sixth, have matches Wednesday against top-ranked India and June 14 vs. No. 11 Ireland.
Among the heroes Thursday for the U.S. were Queens-born batsman Aaron Jones, who followed up an outstanding performance against Canada with crucial knocks in the late stages against Pakistan, and the batting tandem of Patel (50 runs) and Andries Gous.
Early in the match, with Pakistan batting first in regulation play, Steven Taylor made a diving, one-handed grab to take a wicket. Pakistan was off to a slow start, but it rallied to finish with a solid 159 runs. That was not necessarily an insurmountable number for a group of Americans who had put up 197 in their opener, but this time they were going up against an imposing slate of Pakistan bowlers, including Shaheen Afridi, Mohammad Amir, Naseem Shah and Haris Rauf.
Amir was shaky, however, in the super over, accounting for three wide balls. When it was the turn of the Indian-born Netravalkar, who holds a day job as an engineer for Oracle, he continued his team’s day-long theme of impressive composure in the face of overwhelming odds.
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Publish date : 2024-06-07 00:11:00
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