USA’s win over Pakistan in the T20 World Cup was seen as the shock of the tournament.©AFP
USA pacer Ali Khan has suggested that the win over Pakistan in the group stage of the T20 World Cup was no fluke. Pakistan-born Ali revealed that between India and Pakistan, the USA had always dreamed of beating the latter due to their historical background. The USA defeated Pakistan in the group stage and the result was considered the shock of the tournament. The co-hosts of the T20 World Cup qualified for the Super 8 stage following the result. It took a super over for the USA to record a famous win against Pakistan but Ali, unsurprisingly, described the match as an emotional one.
“If I had bowled the Super Over, the whole of Pakistan would have been angry with me. But they didn’t give me the ball. In fact, it was a very good call. Otherwise, my entry into Pakistan would have been banned. The match against Pakistan was an emotional one as we have never played such a big team before. So, playing against Pakistan in the World Cup meant a lot, especially as they have players like Babar Azam, Rizwan, Fakhar and Shaheen Afridi. We played against Canada in the opener but we play against them all the time,” Ali said during a caught behind discussion.
Speaking about the USA’s progress in the tournament, Ali claimed their series win against Bangladesh ahead of the T20 World Cup gave them huge confidence going into the tournament.
“But the series against Bangladesh before the World Cup was a huge confidence booster. We beat them and it was the first time we had won a series against a country playing Test matches. It gave us a lot of confidence going forward. We knew we could beat Canada and Ireland easily and then it was just a matter of choosing between India and Pakistan. We were confident of beating Pakistan. We planned accordingly and dominated them from the first ball. I think Pakistan were in a good phase when Babar and Shadab were batting but apart from that we dominated Pakistan,” he added.
Ali described Pakistan as an unpredictable team and said they would either lose badly to them or be badly beaten by them.
“If you look at Pakistan’s history, they either destroy you or destroy themselves. Thankfully, the latter happened. It was a lucky day for us and the victory was significant,” he concluded.
The United States finished second in Group A behind India with five points from four games.
Topics mentioned in this article
