NEWS
Follow UsSaurabh Netravalkar got rid of Virat Kohli and his former Mumbai teammate Rohit Sharma in quick succession that put India on the back foot, after they were set a target of 111. Netravalkar, who represented India in the Under-19 World Cup 2010, says that his and the team's focus was to execute their plans not not focus of who they are up against.
"I'm glad I could execute for my team with the sort of total we had that we make those early breakthroughs. We did not want to focus not thinking about the name of the batters because it's hard. They are top quality players," Netravalkar, who finished with 2/18, said after the match.
"We thought of being clear about our plans and execute our processes rather than thinking about who we are facing and what the result is going to be. But I am glad at least that first spell worked well for me."
He credits the support staff for giving them such clarity. "We have general clarity as to which bowler can do what. And we do watch videos of opposition. The pitch plays a crucial role. Dallas was a different wicket, it was batter friendly," the 32-year-old said.
"So we had to vary our pace more. Here it was a bowler-friendly wicket, the bowlers didn't have to do much. Just need to hit the top of off and let the pitch do the variation rather than us trying to do any variation. We have those sort of talks, and credit to the coach staff that they give that kind of clarity."
The USA vs India was the first fixture where a team was victim of Stop the Clock rule. According to the rules, the bowling team has to be ready to bowl the next over within 60 seconds after completing the previous over. They are given a couple of warnings, but if the team does not start the over in a minute, the will be slapped with five penalty runs.
USA were on the receiving end, and as a result, the equation for India turned from 35 required off 30 to run-a-ball 30.
"When you're bowling top quality bowlers, especially like Surya [Suryakumar Yadav], you might double guess yourself and want to know what field what you want to set. Field setting was taking too much time because we were trying to anticipate what shot he will play, and that's what happened," Netravalkar explained.
Despite their seven-wicket loss, USA still remain in contention for a place in the Super Eights. They take on Ireland in Lauderhill, Florida next on June 14 (Friday). We have already seen a washout between Sri Lanka and Nepal there and a similar result will see the US making it through to thre next round.
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