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The USA faced a number of obstacles. It was ripe with the ingredients of a biassed article. It was anything but that, though. India has advanced to the Super Eights, but the United States is still very much in control of their own destiny. They can go past Pakistan, whom they famously defeated in a thrilling Super Over match last week, with a victory over Ireland, even if it is a washout.
Arshdeep Singh swung the ball back in during the opening over of the day, which lasted two wickets. Replacing Monank Patel, Shayan Jahangir was out leg before wicket, and Andries Gous was caught mid-off while trying to pull a sloppy short ball.
The USA didn’t get any momentum that would have allowed them to approach 120 until Nitish Kumar and Corey Anderson put up 25 off 18 going into the final overs.
However, overs 16-18 scuppered those plans. Hardik bowled a wicket-maiden in the 17th, dismissing Anderson for his second wicket, and Arshdeep had Harmeet Singh – who had top-edged Bumrah for a six to get off the mark – caught behind.
First, Virat Kohli. Next is Rohit Sharma. It was a stunning delivery of the ball that hit Kohli in the opening over. The batter jabbed after nicking off with a flawless away-going delivery. In T20Is, it was only Kohli’s second golden duck.
It was kind of the same ball that hit Rohit. Rohit turned the bat’s face to take the leading edge, but it was much closer to the stumps. Harmeet Singh, a few years Rohit’s junior in school, ran back and held on at the midway point.
India were shell-shocked at 15 for 2, which soon became 44 for 3 when Rishabh Pant was out to one that skidded low and through his defence.
53 out of 45 required. Cutters were being bowled into the pitch by the USA. Suryakumar was making an effort to fake strokes but was having trouble getting the ball off the square. It works most of the time. It wasn’t in this case.
He sliced the ball high in an attempt to play his signature loft an over after almost being bowled while attempting to sweep Corey Anderson off his length. After making a fantastic job of getting to the ball while running back from short third, Saurabh Netravalkar looped around it but was unable to hang on.
It seemed as though Suryakumar’s reprieve deflated the United States. Aaron Jones started changing fields every time a ball was pitched and approaching to talk with the pitcher in between pitches, which gave the hitters an advantage. The USA were twice advised not to start their next over inside their allotted 60 seconds in order to avoid prolonging the match. The umpires gave India five penalty runs when they made a third mistake.
India required a run-a-ball thirty from 35 off thirty. It made no difference then that Suryakumar was well out of his 360-degree mode or that Dube had once struggled on 5 off 14.
In the 17th over, India truly broke the stranglehold when Suryakumar picked Shadley van Schalkwyk’s medium pace for a lofted six over extra cover and a trademark flick over his shoulder for four off back-to-back deliveries.