New York: India navigated a sticky situation on the commendable warriors of Surya Kumar Yadav and Shivam Dube to win their third consecutive game of the Group stage matches to scamper into the Super Eights in flying colours. India chased down the target of 111 in 18.2 overs and three wickets down with the highlight of the day being Suryakumar Yadav’s gritty 50 in 49 balls, his 18th in T20.
The innings open to a heart-attack situation all around. Kohli for a golden duck, Rohit for three, it was super over super boy Saurabh Netravalkar’s day at the Nassau County Cricket stadium where his quick two scalps of fabled Indian batsmen had their scoreline look as iffy as USA’s was in the opening overs.
Thanks to this Marathi manus with big data search powers, a measly 110 total metamorphosed into a monstrous climb for India.
With two overs, four runs and two of his biggest-ever conquests, Netravalkar had just started rolling in the final match for New York.
Inspired by the spirit of conquest, Ali Khan bowled one that angled in and kept low to yank out the middle stump behind Rishabh Pant (18) bringing India again into the zone of instability at 39-3 in 7.3 overs.
The shredder used by Pakistani bowlers seemed to have returned to the middle in the arms of a less legendary but determined bowling department of the hosts. Indian batters will have some thinking to do once they proceed to the Caribbean which may not have a stop-and-startle pitch like New York, but they come laced with bounce and fly that can dog the best of batters.
At halftime, at 47-3, India looked uncomfortable, worried, and hard at work to come out of the rigmarole which could be blamed on the bat not taking a liking to the pitch. A toiling Shivam Dube and a cautious Surya Kumar Yadav quietly carried on keeping audacity on the back burner to reach the finish line with singles and twos and an occasional boundary to fight the burden and fallout of inertia.
Just 21 in 29 balls, Surya was a picture of unprecedented caution. Dube, on the other end, at 11 in 18, continued on the circumspection drill even as the run rate mounted to 7.29 runs over. Surya survived an attempted aggression when Netravalkar dropped him at third man.
By the 14th over, Indian batsmen had hit just two sixes and three fours in total with two of these and six coming off Surya’s blade.
India’s 100 came after a long battle by Dube and Surya in 16.5 overs when India needed nine from 18 balls after a six and four from Surya on consecutive balls by van Schalkwyk. With India now requiring just five runs from 15 balls, the breath came back to the Indian camp and the 31,219 spectators in the stands.
Surya, meanwhile, reached his 18th T20 50 in 49 balls, signalling that he had passed the litmus test of patience for this one.
India won by seven wickets with both Dube and Surya emerging as determined warriors on a sticky wicket.
Earlier in the day, in an initial see-saw performance, battling nerves and the incorrigible pitch at New York, hosts USA put up a sustainable show on their biggest occasion of the tournament, playing against India and posting 110-8 on board for India to chase in the afternoon.
The hosts ended their innings with six sixes and three boundaries for the good-looking 110 on board with eight down, Jessy getting run out on the last ball of the innings. In the end, it was a score that has proved to be tricky on this pitch.
Earlier in the day, on a bright sunny morning, Rohit Sharma won the toss and elected to bowl in the tournament finale for New York where the team spent 12 days, dealing with conditions that were alien, totals that were difficult to defend, practice venues that had drop-down pitches, a surface that had the chirp around it being termed “unsavoury”.
Arshdeep Singh, who ended his spell with four wickets, started off the proceedings with a first ball beauty scalping Shayan Jahangir who walked to a golden duck butting the fabled home team with eight Indians, two Pakistanis and a Caribbean on the rolls, into an early no-score trouble.
He followed it up with the second one, taking away Andries Gous for just two runs as his mistimed pull shot went straight into the hands of a striding Hardik Pandya bang on the run-up, bringing the USA into a doldrum score of 3-2.
Arshdeep’s opening over conceded just three runs for two wickets, setting the tone for Mohammed Siraj and others to cement the damage to the hosts.
By the fifth over, the USA started to settle down, slow but steady having to navigate Bumrah with caution. As 18-2 in 5.5 overs, the method in the morning madness that visited them, started to return on the bat of Aaron Jones who settled his nerves with a reassuring six off Siraj. He was backed by Steven Taylor who lived in the middle on the right side of extreme caution.
Despite the asphyxiating bowling of Bumrah, it was Pandya who got his first and in a routine manner broke up the fragile partnership, taking out Jones (11) as he pulled a bouncer straight to fine leg where Siraj had no problems cupping it.
Just when stability was knocking on the doors, America lost their third at 25 in the 7.4th over, a three-figure score looking like a faraway impossibility.
Axar Patel came in by the 9th over when the USA were 37-3 to bowl a quiet but restrictive over on a pitch that was questioning the batters all through.
It was the Indians in the USA team that brought in some action and runs on the board. Nitish Kumar who came in after Jones walked, worked his magic with the bat for a brief while, fearlessly hitting two boundaries and a six, scoring a well-earned 27 runs at a 117 plus strike rate to be finally caught at square leg boundary by Siraj as Arshdeep celebrated his 3-0-5-3 kind of unbelievable personal figures.
Pandya got his second in a wicket maiden as Corey Anderson lobbed a straight one to mid-wicket so high into the air that wicket-keeper Rishabh Pant could run and catch the ball bringing USA to 96-6 in the 17th over.
Soon it was four for Arshdeep as he removed Harmeet Singh who passed on the ball to Rishabh with a gentle touch of the bat. At 98-7 and two overs to go, the USA got in yet another Indian – Jessy Singh – to reach the team to a three-figure total. The 100 came in 17.5 overs, on a day that Bumrah went wicketless to a rarity.
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