USA vs Bangladesh, 1st T20 | Harmeet’s strong hit and Anderson’s finishing cameo lead to a come-from-behind victory for the USA

Riding on the valiant efforts of Corey Anderson and Harmeet Singh, cricket’s upstart team USA defeated Bangladesh by five wickets in the first T20I of the three-match series at the Prairie View Cricket Complex here. He defeated the team and pulled off a huge upset.

As cricketing powerhouses and big names gear up for the much-awaited T20 World Cup, which is less than 10 days away, the co-hosts of the marquee event are looking to set a precedent against a clearly strong and highly anticipated Bangladesh team. He won an unprecedented victory.

After limiting Bangladesh to 153/6 in the first innings, the US gave themselves a foothold to improve their chances of pulling off the upset. The opening pair of Steven Taylor and captain Monank Patel scored 27 runs in the first three overs. However, Monanque (12) was out at the non-striker’s end. Andries Ghous (23) arrived at the crease and scored runs at a fast pace before losing his wicket to Rishad Hossain. Taylor, 28, looked set to stay at the crease for a long time, but Mustafizur Rahman got the better of the batsman.

When the chase, which looked promising, started to falter in the middle, Anderson and Harmeet raised hopes of victory. Harmeet changed the face of the match by scoring six consecutive runs from Mustafizur in the 17th over. In the 18th over, Harmeet hit a series of boundaries and Shoriful Islam fell at the receiving end.

A towering six off the second ball was followed by a boundary off the final delivery. In the over he scored 14 runs, which meant that in his last two innings he scored 24 runs. Anderson played his part in ending the game by scoring two sixes and a boundary in the next nine balls. His finishing touch gave America a five-wicket victory against Bangladesh.

Early in the innings, after winning the toss and putting Bangladesh in to bat, the visiting team’s performance was middling.

A conservative approach in the powerplay saw Bangladesh score 37/2. Shakib Al Hasan struggled until he was run out.

Tohohid Hridoy, 58, starred with a bat on his back acting in the recently concluded Zimbabwe series.

Mahmudullah led the attack in the death overs. However, the American bowlers kept their lines and length tight, restricting Bangladesh to 153/6.

score board:

Bangladesh innings: Litton Das lbw Jesse Singh 14 Soumya Sarkar c Nitish Kumar b Steven Taylor 20 Najmul Hossain Shanto st Monankh Patel b Steven Taylor 3 Tauhid Hridoy c Steven Taylor b Ali Khan 58 Shakib Al Hasan run out Steven Taylor 6 Mahmudullah c Nitish Kumar b Saurabh Netravalkar 31 Jakhar Ali not out 9; Extras: 0b 1lb 5nb 0open 6w 12; Total: (20.0 overs) 153-6

Fall of the wicket: 1-34 Das, 2-34 Sarkar, 3-51 Shant, 4-68 Al-Hasan, 5-135 Riyadh, 6-153

Bowling: (Ov Md Rn Wk Econ Ex) Saurabh Netravalkar 4 0 27 1 6.75 Ali Khan 4 0 49 1 12.25 2w 1nb Jesse Singh 3 1 30 1 10.00 2nb Stephen Taylor 3 0 9 2 3.00 Corey Anderson 2 0 10 0 5.00 Hermiting 4 0 27 0 6.75 2w 2nb

US innings: Stephen Taylor c Mahmudullah b Mustafizur Rahman 28 Monank Patel Runout Shoriful Islam 12 Andrees Ghous c Mustafizur Rahman b Rishad Hossain 23 Aaron Jones c Nazimul Hossain Shanto b Mustafizur Rahman 4 Nitish Kumar c Tauhid -Hridoy b Shoriful Islam 10 Corey Anderson not out 34 Harmeet Singh not out 33; Extras: 4b 1lb 0nb 0open 7w 12; Total: (19.3 overs) 156-5

Fall of the Wicket: 1-27 Patel, 2-65 Guh, 3-75 Taylor, 4-78 Jones, 5-94 Kumar did not bat: Khan, Singh, Kenjige, Netravalkar.

Bowling: (Ov Md Rn Wk Econ Ex) Mahmudullah 2.3 0 20 0 8.00 Shoriful Islam 4 0 31 1 7.75 3w Mahedi Hasan 4 0 27 0 6.75 Shakib Al Hasan 3 0 16 0 5.33 Mustafizur Rahman 4 0 41 2 5 Rishad Hossain 2 0 16 1 8.00

(With input from Reuters)