The United States pulled off a major upset on Thursday, beating cricketing powerhouse Pakistan in a Super Over at the T20 World Cup in Grand Prairie, Texas.
The U.S. cricket team recorded a commanding seven-wicket victory over Canada in the opening match, but its victory over 2022 runners-up Pakistan in a country that barely understands the rules of the game will be considered historic.
Aaron Jones, who scored 94 off 40 balls against Canada, once again starred for the co-hosts as he took the match into the Super Over with a crucial knock of 36 off 26 runs.
Jones hit a six off Haris Rauf followed by a single but the final ball bounded off Nitish Kumar and Pakistan’s experienced fast bowler lost 14 runs off his final six to leave the scores level at 159-159 at the end of regulation time.
Pakistan panicked in the Super Over as experienced fast bowler Mohammed Amir, who was preferred over Shaheen Shah Afridi, gave away 18 runs, including seven off a wide ball as Jones smashed a boundary against the left-arm fast bowler.
Left-arm fast bowler Saurabh Netravalkar bowled brilliantly, taking 2-18 in his four overs and conceding just 13 runs in the Super Over to power the USA to their most historic Twenty20 win in history against 2009 champions Pakistan.
Iftikhar Ahmed smashed a boundary off Netravalkar’s second ball before holing out over long-off, but the left-arm seamer kept his cool to hand the United States a famous win.
“It’s a big achievement to win against Pakistan for the first time,” said US captain Monankh Patel. “We took advantage of the situation and restricted them to 160, a score we could have caught up with.”
It has been a disastrous start for captain Babar Azam’s Pakistan, who are set to take on arch rivals India in New York on Sunday.
“Kudos to the USA for performing well in all three departments and that’s why we won,” Babar said. “We didn’t take advantage of our opportunities in the first six overs. We were on a roll but successive wickets hurt us.”
The USA looked set to stun Pakistan in the regular game when captain Patel hit a 38-ball fifty to lead the home team to 104 for 1 in the 13th over, along with Andries Guth (35). But Pakistan rallied back, dismissing both set batsmen in successive overs as the USA finished at 159 for 3.
Patel and Goose added 68 for the second wicket as Pakistan’s four-man pace attack, led by Shaheen Shah Afridi, failed to trouble them and leg-spinner Shadab Khan was also in poor form before Amir gave Pakistan a ray of hope.
Amir caught Patel behind with a slow off-cutter and Ghose was clean-bowled by Rauf, but Rauf, who bowled his final over with 15 runs to spare, could not stop Jones and Kumar delivering two big hits in the final three balls to take the match to a Super Over.
Pakistan’s batting, which has struggled for a year in the sport’s shortest format, was further exposed by disciplined US seam bowling after Patel won the toss, opted to defend and restricted his opponents to 159-7.
Babar Azam and Mohammed Rizwan were again deployed as the opening pair but could not save them, with the middle order stumbling on a slow wicket.
Steven Taylor took a brilliant one-handed catch inches from the turf on Netravalkar’s second delivery to get Rizwan out and give the local team a perfect start.
The left-arm spin of Nostash Kenjige (3-30) also troubled the Pakistan batsmen inside the powerplay, when Usman Khan played a reckless shot and was run out, and Fakhar Zaman’s weak ramp shot failed to get past the fielder at short fine leg inside the 30-yard circle, leaving Pakistan retreating to 26-3 after five overs.
Babar (44) and Shadab Khan (40) tried to regain momentum and built a 72-run stand before Kensige broke the threatening stand in the 13th over when Shadab was brilliantly snapped at short fine leg by Netravalkar and Azam Khan was pinned down leg-before-wicket off the first ball by the left-arm spinner.
Babar, who became the world’s leading run-getter in T20s to surpass Virat Kohli’s 4,038 runs, was in poor form in a 43-ball batsmanship that included two sixes and three boundary runs before falling lbw to Jasdeep Singh’s delivery in the 16th over to see Pakistan slip to 125-6.
Shaheen Shah Afridi raised Pakistan’s death-over tally with 23 runs off 16 balls, including two sixes towards the end.
