Mumbai: The USA captain Monank Patel was effusive in praise for his bowlers for their performance, but said his top-order batters could not perform and perished to soft dismissals as they suffered a 29-run defeat against defending champions India in their opening match of the ICC Men's T20 World Cup in Mumbai.
With Shadley van Schalkwyk claiming 4-25, including an initial burst of 3-13, the USA had India on the ropes at 77/6. But they could not press home the advantage, and India skipper Suryakumar Yadav hammered an unbeaten 894 off 49 balls to help the hosts post 161/9 in 20 overs.
Chasing a modest total, the USA lost three early wickets for 13 runs but had recovered to 71 for three thanks to Milind Kumar (34) and Sanjay Krishnamurthi (37) before their innings unravelled and then were eventually restricted to 132/8 in 20 overs.
Monank said his bowlers did a great job to reduce India to 77/6 but blamed dropped catches for not restricting the hosts to 130 or so.
"I thought our bowlers did a good job. Pitch was not easy to read. The variations they bowled in the powerplay...we kept them quiet for a while. We dropped catches, and that cost us. At one stage, we felt we could restrict them to 130," said the USA captain.
He said 160 was chasable, but the failure of his top three batters put paid to their efforts. He said they have taken lots of learnings from this match, which will help them in subsequent matches.
"I thought 160 was a good score (to chase on this wicket). The top three could not perform, soft dismissals. The intent was a bit missing because we lost wickets initially. Lots of learning and positives from this game. The way we handled the pressure, the crowd, we managed it really well. We made a few mistakes, but we will try to come back stronger," he added.
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Pakistan beat USA by 32 runs Colombo: Pakistan eased past the USA by 32 runs at the Sinhalese Sports Club here, avenging their defeat at group stage in the previous World Cup. The way the US opened their innings indicated they would fight this all the way through, but that spirit was asphyxiated out of them by Pakistan's unerringly accurate spinners. They ended up at 158 for 8. Pakistan moved to 4 points, maintaining their perfect record ahead of their game against India, and are now on top of Group A. Earlier, Pakistan posted a competitive 190/9 in their allotted 20 overs against the USA, thanks largely to opener Sahibzada Farhan’s 73-run knock, when the two sides faced off in their Group A match of the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup. The foundation was laid by the opening pair of Saim Ayub and Farhan, who shared a vital 54-run partnership for the first wicket. Ayub started positively, scoring 19 runs off 17 balls, but it was Farhan who really stamped his authority on the innings. |
