India defeated the United States by seven wickets on Wednesday to advance to the T20 World Cup second round. Suryakumar Yadav scored an undefeated half-century, and left-arm seamer Arshdeep Singh took a career-best 4-9.
India was rocked at 15-2 and then 44-3 in the Group A match, needing 111 to win. However, Yadav (50) and Shivam Dube (31) put on an unbeaten 67-run partnership at the fourth wicket to give Rohit Sharma’s squad its third straight victory with ten balls remaining.
Despite the loss, the US is still in a good position to face India in the Super Eights since they have four points to Canada’s and Pakistan’s two.
Fast bowler Saurabh Netravalkar, who was born in Mumbai, shocked the Indian team by trapping superstar batsman Virat Kohli for nought on the first ball he faced.
In the third over, Rohit was again caught by Harmeet Singh at mid-off, this time off the bowling of the thirty-two-year-old Netravalkar.
In the eighth over, Rishabh Pant’s 18-run cameo was cut short as Ali Khan uprooted his stumps.
But Yadav scored two fours and two sixes en route to his 18th international T20 half-century off 49 balls.
On the same infamously difficult and sluggish Nassau County International Cricket Stadium field where India had made just 119 in a six-run victory over Pakistan the previous weekend, left-hander Dube scored 31 from 35 deliveries, including a boundary and a six.
The USA was down 3-2 after the first over as Arshdeep had recalled opener Shayan Jahangir leg before wicket with the first ball and then had Andries Gous (two) caught in the deep five balls later.
The hosts’ first victory over Canada in Dallas saw big-hitting captain Aaron Jones smash an unbeaten 94 runs, but he only managed to make 11 before getting out to Hardik Pandya.
After the US was down 25-3 after that, top scorer Nitish Kumar (27), and opener Steven Taylor (24) shared a fourth-wicket partnership of 31 runs.
Nitish became Arshdeep’s third victim as Mohammed Siraj deftly caught him on the boundary.
After Pandya completed a wicket-maiden, wicket-keeper Pant made a running catch to dismiss former New Zealand great Corey Anderson (15) with the score at 96.
The Americans wanted to get the total up to thirty. Arshdeep had Harmeet Singh trailing him for ten.
Jasdeep Singh (two) and Shadley van Schalkwyk (eleven) made sure the US posted what they believed to be a respectable score.
Both sides entered the match with a perfect four points from two victories, with the USA having just defeated Pakistan in a historic Super Over victory.
India is one of the three teams that has secured a spot in the next round, along with South Africa and Australia.
