In the news after an impressive showing against Pakistan, the United States’ left-arm quick Saurabh Netravalkar extended his good form in this T20 World Cup with early wickets of the Big Two of India’s batting — Virat Kohli and captain Rohit Sharma.
But then he shelled a relatively easy chance running backwards from short third man to give a reprieve to his former Mumbai teammate Suryakumar Yadav, who was on 22 then and struggling for fluency on the difficult New York wicket.
That reprieve was the game’s turning point. Surya cashed in on that let-off and went on to hit an unbeaten 50 off 49 balls, helping India overhaul the United States’ 110/8 and register a seven-wicket win to qualify for the Super Eight stage.
Shivam Dube (31 not out off 35 balls), once again edgy with the bat early on after conceding 11 off the only over he bowled, made sure not to do anything silly at the other end. India were in trouble at 44/3 in the eighth over when Dube came in, but Surya’s presence at the other end helped ease Dube’s nerves as their unbroken 67-run stand took India home with 10 balls to spare.
For sure, Surya’s knock, after yet another failure from Kohli (out first ball) and Rohit being tentative once again should help India feel much better going into the Super Eight stage. Besides, Rishabh Pant too couldn’t do much on this occasion. In that regard, Surya getting back to runs bodes really well for India.
United States' Saurabh Nethralvakar, right, celebrates the dismissal of India's Virat Kohli, left, during the ICC Men's T20 World Cup cricket match between United States and India AP/PTI
For the US, it indeed was another spirited effort, though their overall inexperience and unforced errors went on to hurt them. Before the 16th over of the run chase, five penalty runs also were awarded to India because the US thrice took more than a minute between overs.
That eased the pressure off the Indians as they then needed 30 off as many balls, when it was actually 35 off 30 before the penalty was in effect.
Earlier, India’s confidence doubled thanks to Pakistan’s extremely reckless batting last Sunday, pacer Arshdeep Singh (4/9) was bang on target from the very first ball of the game. He struck twice in the opening over after an unchanged India won the toss and opted to bowl.
Beginning the proceedings with a delivery that swung in to trap Shayan Jahangir lbw, Arshdeep dismissed wicketkeeper Andries Gous with a short ball in the last ball of the first over. The short-pitched stuff, in fact, was executed quite well by the left-armer which made life tougher for the opposition batters.
Arshdeep’s fourth and final scalp, that of Harmeet Singh, also came via the short ball as he didn’t concede any boundary and bowled as many as 17 dot balls. His figures also turned out to be the best by an Indian in the T20 World Cup.
All-rounder Hardik Pandya (2/14) also continued to contribute with the ball. Once again, the short stuff yielded Pandya success, earning him the key wickets of stand-in captain Aaron Jones and Corey Anderson.
