TThe U.S. cricket team pulled off a stunning upset Thursday, beating the sport’s powerhouse Pakistan in the Men’s T20 World Cup in Dallas.
Before the match, the United States, which will co-host the tournament with the West Indies, was given just a 7% chance of winning by some bookmakers. But the U.S. team, making its T20 World Cup debut, pulled off one of the biggest shocks in cricket history and is now likely to qualify for the next round, the Super 8 stage. Meanwhile, Pakistan, the 2009 winner and 2022 runner-up, is in danger of early elimination from the tournament.
“I’m really proud of the guys,” U.S. captain and match captain Monank Patel said after the team won the Super Over with the score tied after 20 overs. “It was total teamwork from the first ball to the last.”
British-Pakistani comedian and cricket commentator Atif Nawaz expressed surprise at the US victory in an interview with X. “I never thought I’d see that game, much less the result,” he said.
Waqar Younis, a former Pakistan national team player and coach, Blessed He hailed the US for a “crushing victory”, adding that “Pakistan looked exhausted and helpless on the battlefield”.
Many Americans, acknowledging they’ve only recently started paying attention to cricket despite it not even being in the top 20 most popular sports in the country, celebrated the upset on social media. “They beat Pakistan and there are only like 6 people in the entire country who know how to play cricket,” posted one X user. “Cricket Twitter tried to fight us so we decided to take over the sport within days. LOL,” added another.
Many were surprised by the fact that US star Saurabh Netravalkar works as a software engineer by day.
But the T20 World Cup is not over yet and the U.S. has at least one more chance to defy the odds. Pakistan and the U.S. next face world number one India in New York on Sunday and Wednesday, respectively.
