The United States’ winning streak at the T20 Cricket World Cup has been ended with a seven-wicket defeat to powerhouses India in New York.
The tournament co-hosts pulled off one of the great shocks in their previous match with a super-over victory against Pakistan, but they were unable to recreate the feat against the No 1-ranked team in the sport, despite another promising performance with bat and ball.
India won the toss and chose to bowl first. The U.S. battled well to set a target of 110 but saw that total chased down with 10 balls to spare as they were dealt their first defeat of the tournament — despite dismissing batting stars Virat Kohli and captain Rohit Sharma cheaply.
What happened in the game?
The U.S. could not have got off to a worse start as opening batter Shayan Jahangir was out to the first ball of the game, trapped LBW (leg before wicket) by Arshdeep Singh. And the Indian quick-bowler had a second wicket five balls later as Andries Gous skied a pull shot straight up in the air.
Stand-in captain Aaron Jones — scorer of 141 runs from 72 balls in the first two matches — came and went before Steven Taylor and Nitish Kumar put on a key 31-run partnership.
The wicket of Taylor brought Corey Anderson to the crease, who helped Nitish take the total to almost 100 with some entertaining shots. A strong batting performance on a tough pitch from Nitish was brought to an end by an excellent catch on the boundary from Mohammed Siraj before Arshdeep, the player of the match, took his fourth wicket.
It took a superb Siraj catch to dismiss the dangerous Nitish (Alex Davidson-ICC/ICC via Getty Images)
Handy knocks from Harmeet Singh and Shadley van Schalkwyk moved the total into three figures and the U.S. were able to set India a target of 110.
Their defence of that total started perfectly when the hero of the super-over win against Pakistan, Saurabh Netravalkar, dismissed Kohli — widely considered one of the greatest batters ever to play the game — for a golden duck in the first over and then Rohit, whose leading edge was pouched by Harmeet Singh. All three players involved in that wicket hail from the Indian city of Mumbai, with Harmeet and Sharma even having attended the same school.
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A skidding delivery from Ali Khan snuck through Rishabh Pant’s defence to leave India reeling at 39 for three. But they steadied and Netravalkar unforgivably dropped No 1-ranked T20 internationals batter Suryakumar Yadav after he heaved a Van Schalkwyk delivery straight up in the air.
Netravalkar’s drop in the 13th over proved costly (Alex Davidson-ICC/ICC via Getty Images)
With India well placed to win the game, the U.S. made an unacceptable error that cost them five runs. They were punished in line with a new rule that states teams will be penalised five runs if they “fail three times in an innings to start the new over within a minute”.
From there, Yadav and Shivam Dube saw the game out for India with a partnership worth 67 runs off 66 balls.
Who was the USA’s best player today?
With the bat, Canada-born Nitish Kumar was the star of the show with 27 runs from 23 balls. The only player with more runs at a greater strike rate was Yadav.
And with the ball, Netravalkar stood out, conceding just 18 runs across his four overs. The wickets of Kohli and Sharma inside his first two overs gave the U.S. a genuine chance of victory against one of the world’s best teams.
His drop of Yadav was costly, though, as a wicket at that juncture would have vastly improved his side’s chances of causing the biggest shock in cricket history. Netravalkar came back into the attack to bowl two more tight overs but, by that stage, India had taken full control.
Can the U.S. still qualify for the next round?
Despite this defeat, winning the first two matches stands the U.S. in great stead to make it to the Super Eights, the tournament’s eight-team second group phase. A rained-off game or a win in their final group match, against Ireland on Friday, would guarantee their passage. Two matches have been drawn with no result as a result of rain in this tournament.
Both USA vs Ireland and Pakistan vs Ireland on Sunday are being played at Lauderhill in Florida, where heavy rain is expected over the next few days.
Either of those matches being rained off with no result would send the U.S. into the Super Eights.
What comes next?
Newfound supporters of the U.S. cricket team will be pleased to hear there are just two days until they are back in action.
They will make the 1,300-mile trip down the east coast to face Ireland at Central Broward Park & Broward County Stadium in Lauderhill, on the outskirts of Miami, on Friday.
If it can go ahead, the match is scheduled to start at 10:30am ET/7:30am PT with the toss taking place half an hour before.
T20 World Cup key dates
- U.S. vs Ireland: Friday, June 14
- Super Eight stage: Thursday, June 20 – Monday, June 24
- Semi-finals: Wednesday, June 26 and Thursday, June 27
- Final: Saturday, June 29
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(Top photo: Netravalkar celebrates dismissing Kohli; Timothy A Clary/AFP via Getty Images)