After a mediocre batting performance, Indian bowlers put in a disciplined effort to defeat the United States of America by 29 runs on Saturday in Mumbai, kicking off their ICC T20 World Cup campaign with a victory.
After India struggled to 161/9, the best bowlers were left-arm spinner Axar Patel (2/24) and pacers Mohammad Siraj (2/29), Arshdeep Singh (2/18) as the USA managed 132/8 in response.
Sanjay Krishnamurthi and Shubham Ranjane top scored for the USA with each scoring 37 runs. Milind Kumar took chipped in with run-a-ball 34, but rest of the USA batters failed to reach double figures.
Earlier, India achieved a mediocre 161/9, as captain Suryakumar Yadav pulled the defending champions out of the muck with an unbeaten 84.
After a spectacular collapse that left India reeling at 77 for six in the 13th over, Suryakumar stood tall with a 49-ball innings dotted with 10 fours and four sixes, driving them out of the woods by himself.
Shadley van Schalkwyk, who was born in South Africa, returned with numbers of 4-0-25-4 as India’s renowned batting lineup—aside from Suryakumar—had a terrible batting performance and faced the threat of being restricted for a subpar score. The fact that the USA did not allow the Indian hitters to free their arms and that India failed to score a run on the first four balls of the innings may have been the final straw.
Abhishek Sharma was dismissed for a first-ball duck in the second over, but Ishan Kishan (20) got things going with a six off the fifth ball. The Wankhede Stadium became silent for the first time in the evening as world No. 1 Abhishek smashed Ali Khan’s delivery straight to Sanjay Krishnamurthi at deep cover, who was dismissed for a first-ball duck. US captain Monank Patel set up fielders straighter than finer, which was excellent field placement.
It appeared as though India was finally on their feet when Tilak Varma, 25, escaped the shackles by dancing down to knock a straight off Saurabh Netravalkar in the third over and went after van Schalkwyk for three fours in the next. Ishan, however, missed a dropped catch and blasted one straight to mid-on off van Schalkwyk on the opening ball of the sixth over after slapping Ali off his pads for a magnificent six.
When USA captain Monank Patel got catching practice as Tilak failed to time a draw off a short ball that rose higher than he had anticipated, Van Schalkwyk couldn’t believe his luck.
Even though Shivam Dube (0) is accustomed to the Wankhede wicket, a harmless slow bouncer completely outwitted the powerful all-rounder by failing to stop his stroke. When the ball flew to Netravalkar at short fine leg, Dube, who appeared utterly clueless, was caught in an awkward approach.
Rinku Singh struggled to find timing, managing 6 off 14 balls before mistiming his first aggressive shot straight to long-on off Mohammad Mohsin, who finished with figures of 4-0-16-1. Hardik Pandya followed soon after, holing out to sweeper cover while attempting a big hit off former Mumbai left-arm spinner Harmeet Singh (4-0-26-2), and Axar Patel (14) also fell in his effort to squeeze out a few late runs.
Suryakumar took it upon himself to take India out of danger once more and dug in deep to farm the strike and hardly missed any of the strokes that had been his specialty. In the final two overs, Suryakumar finally opened up, becoming the only Indian batter to really comprehend the character of the wicket. 34 runs were scored by him from those, including 21 in Netravalkar’s last over.
