NEWS
Follow UsIt was a monumental day in Dallas, as the United States of America (USA) edged past former Champions Pakistan in the T20 World Cup. After opting to bowl first, the US did well to restrict Pakistan to under 160 and with the bat, they never let go of the control, but in the end, they could only manage a tie.
If that was not enough, the comprehensively beat Pakistan in the Super Over, to register their first win against them.
What does this win mean to US Cricket? "Beating Pakistan it's a big achievement and the World Cup itself is a big achievement. So yeah, I would say It's a big day for Team USA and I would say not just for USA, for the USA cricket community too," US captain Monank Patel explains at the post-match press conference.
"Beating Pakistan in World Cup is going to open many doors for us. And people, like USA cricket community, be aware of it. Obviously hosting the World Cup in USA and performing here as a team, it helps us to grow the cricket in USA."
Monank, who scored a valiant fifty, believes that the fact there was no pressure on his team and more on Pakistan certainly helped. "In the huddle we talked about - there's no pressure for us. All the pressure is in front of Pakistan. And we knew that we don't have support from the crowd enough. Pakistan had more support from the crowd. And I thought it will backfire them, and if we play good cricket, they'll be more under pressure," he said.
"And winning the toss, the way we bowled in the first six overs, I felt we didn't give them enough opportunity to score runs and we kept them under more pressure and it helped us."
While Monank believes that the match should not have gone into the Super Over, like Pakistan, he too opted to bowl a left-arm pacer for those six deliveries.
"The plan was to make sure that we utilised the condition. And the condition was left-arm bowler [Saurabh Netravalkar] bowling cutters and wide Yorkers with left arm over the angle going out it helps of a bowler to create that angle. Ali Khan usually he hits the stump and we wanted to make sure that we make them play outside the off stump," Monank explains the reasoning behind his decision.
"And as a left-hander, the angle helps it. So that's why Saurabh had a good day, and I backed Saurabh, and yeah, that was the decision."
USA are on top of Group A at the moment after winning both their matches in the tournament so far. They will be thoroughly tested when they take on India next on June 12 (Wednesday) in New York.
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