The Biggest Upset In Men’s Cricket History

Yesterday the Men’s T20 World Cup being co-hosted by the United States of America and the West indies got a massive story, which could just end up being very important indeed in cricket history. This post looks back at an extraordinary match.

THE USA v PAKISTAN

The USA were taking part in a world cup tournament for the first time, while Pakistan have played every world cup, and are former winners, and they would certainly have come to this tournament with hopes of adding to their list of successes. The USA had won the opening match of the tournament, against neighbours Canada, in a reprise of the first ever international cricket match, played in 1844, but this time they were facing opponents of much greater stature. I missed the start of the match because yesterday was a work day for me. I joined the coverage with Pakistan endeavouring to recover from a poor start. They did so to the extent of reaching 159 -7 from their 20 overs. Nothush Kenjige had figures of 3-30 for the USA, Saurabh Netravalkar a remarkable 2-18 from his four overs. He will reappear later in this story. Babar Azam top scored for Pakistan with 44, but took 43 balls to score them – an ODI type innings in a T20I, not for the first time in his career. Shadab Khan had 40 off 25 balls, a better innings in this type of match. Still Pakistan’s bowling is their greatest strength, and 159 should have been enough for them defend. However the USA came out fighting, and were never out of the running. Pakistan had their best period with the ball from overs 12-19 of the USA innings. USA needed 16 when the final over began and got 15 of them, levelling the scores and causing the match to go to a super over. The USA batted first for this, and sensibly sent Aaron Jones, their most explosive batter, in, accompanied by the left handed Harmeet Singh. Pakistan chose Mohammad Amir to bowl the over – which turned out to be a very poor choice – he was all over the place, bowling nine deliveries in total to get through the over, and all three of the wides yielded extra runs. Helped by this the USA tallied 18 from the over, a stiff ask for Pakistan. Pakistan correctly sent Ifitkhar Ahmed and Fakhar Zaman in to bat for them, while Saurabh Netravalkar who had been so economical earlier was trusted with the ball for the USA. Pakistan were 5-0 after two balls, but then Iftikhar was caught off the third, and suddenly the target was 14 off the last three balls. The first two of those balls yielded seven, including a wide, and Pakistan needed six off the final ball to force a second super over. This was too big an ask, and the greatest upset in men’s international cricket had happened. Monank Patel, scorer of a 35 ball 50 for the USA, was named Player of the Match. This win for the USA over one of the top sides in the world should give the game there a massive boost. With two wins out of two they are now well placed to qualify, while Pakistan are in serious jeopardy. A full scorecard of the match is available here.

PHOTOGRAPHS

Here are some recent photographs of mine…