DALLAS – The United States of America (USA) registered a major upset by beating Pakistan in the Super Over in a Group A match of the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup in Dallas.
Needing 19 runs for the victory in the Super Over, Pakistan fell five runs short of the target. Monank Patel was named player of the match.
Chasing a 160-run target for an upset win, USA managed to score 159/3 in the allotted 20 overs to take the game to the Super Over. Monank Patel was the top scorer with 50 runs followed by Aaron Jones who made 36. Andries Gous made 35, Nitish Kumar 14 and Steven Taylor 12 runs. Mohammad Amir, Naseem Shah and Haris Rauf bagged one wicket each.
After being asked to bat first by USA captain Monak Patel, Pakistan scored just 30 runs in powerplay after losing three wickets. Babar Azam (44) and Shadab Khan (40) put Pakistan back on track with a 72-run partnership. After losing two wickets on successive balls in the 13th over, Shaheen Shah Afridi (23) and Iftikhar Ahmed (18) batted sensibly to take the team score to 159/7 in the allotted 20 overs.
Nosthush Kenjige bagged three wickets and Saurabh Netravalkar two while Ali Khan and Jasdeep Singh took one wicket each.
Giving reasons for bowling first, Patel said that chasing here would be easier. Babar Azam will also have opted to bowl first on winning the toss, saying it looked like test match conditions.
Pakistan Playing XI: Babar Azam (capt), Mohammad Rizwan, Usman Khan, Fakhar Zaman, Azam Khan (wk), Iftikhar Ahmed, Shadab Khan, Shaheen Afridi, Naseem Shah, Mohammad Amir, Haris Rauf
USA Playing XI: Steven Taylor, Monank Patel (capt, wk), Andries Gous, Aaron Jones, Nitish Kumar, Corey Anderson, Harmeet Singh, Jasdeep Singh, Nosthush Kenjige, Saurabh Netravalkar, Ali Khan
