USA have won T20 Internationals against full member nations before – twice recently against Bangladesh, and once against Ireland. But Thursday night’s win in the Super Over thriller against Pakistan is undeniably their biggest ever result, and it sends them top of Group A with fixtures against India and Ireland still to come, with a spot in the next round of the tournament now very much a possibility for the ICC T20 World Cup co-hosts.
Perfect plans and near-flawless execution gave USA the desired outcome after two games, and this high-quality outfit had plenty of time to draw up their next match strategy, with their follow-up game not until June 12 against India in New York.
Skipper Monank Patel, one of the architects of the memorable triumph with a brilliant 50, rightly summed up the overall impact of his team’s impressive performance against the 2022 edition finalists.
“I’m happy with the win … it was an unbelievable performance from us. Beating Pakistan, it’s a big achievement. I would say it’s a big day in USA and for the whole USA cricket community too,” said Patel.
“Of course beating Pakistan in the World Cup is going to open many doors for us and people in the US cricket community. Obviously hosting the World Cup in the USA and performing here as a team helps us to grow cricket in the country,” he added.
If anyone thought this was a just a fluke, then think again. This team has every intention of reaching the Super 8 stage, and with two wins from two they now have every chance too.
“I think we are not worried about what people are saying, we know what capability we have and we just focus on the particular game. We don’t want to keep our emotions too high or too low, we’ll enjoy the win today and make sure that the next day we come fresh,” Patel said.
“Before the tournament I said that we want to focus on one game at a time, and our focus will be on playing against India now. We don’t even want to think about Ireland right now, so the Super 8 is far ahead, we just want to focus on one game at a time,” he added.
Right after winning the toss and opting to bowl, the home side let Pakistan know they were in no mood to let the opportunity slip. Early wickets forced a slow scoring rate from the Asian side that eventually saw them finish with a below-par 159 for 7.
In response, USA looked well on their way to victory with Andries Gous (35 from 26) and Monank (50 from 38) taking the score into triple figures with just one wicket lost. But Pakistan’s four-strong pace attack hit back in the death overs, with USA in the end needing a boundary off the final ball of the innings to take the match to a Super Over.
“I mean at one stage, when I got out, we were still in the game and I thought we should have finished the game without going to the Super Over. But the way we kept our nerves, in the Super Over particularly, scoring 18 runs gave us a big upper hand to defend the target,” Patel said.
In the Super Over, Aaron Jones continued his fine form to help the side accumulate 18 runs, thanks largely to Pakistan’s string of errors, both with the ball and in the field to gift the hosts almost half of those runs.
And USA’s clear-thinking was on display yet again when they smartly opted to hand over the ball to Saurabh Netravalkar, instead of their star bowler Ali Khan.
“I mean the plan was to make sure we utilised the conditions, and left-arm bowlers bowling cutters and wide yorkers with the angle going out, it helped. Ali Khan, usually he hits the stumps, and we wanted to make sure we made them play outside the off stump and a left-armer helps with that. Saurabh had a good day and I backed him to do the job, that’s why we made that decision,” Patel explained.
Still licking their wounds from the upset, the men-in-green will look to regroup quickly as they face a tougher battle when they take on an in-form India in the high-octane clash on Sunday.