Agency
NEW YORK: Arshdeep Singh’s artistry and Suryakumar Yadav’s coolness combined well for India as they staved off USA’s challenge, etching a seven-wicket win to clinch a Super Eight berth in the T20 World Cup here on Wednesday.
After Arshdeep’s career-best 4 for 9 restricted USA to what looked like a manageable 110 for 8, India made a heavy weather of an easy chase on a slightly challenging track before Suryakumar (50 not out off 49 balls) reasserted his status as world’s No. 1 ranked T20 batter.
He traded his flamboyance, waiting like a tiger on the prowl for his prey, in the company of Shivam Dube (31 not out off 35 balls), who didn’t inspire much confidence despite the chase being completed in 18.2 overs.
The Surya-Dube pair added 67 runs for the unbroken fourth wicket stand.
The turning point seemed to be a bit of ignorance about the rules from the US bowlers, who flouted the rule of taking only 60 seconds between the overs on three occasions and conceded five penalty runs at an inopportune time.
India needed 35 off 30 balls at that stage when umpire Paul Reiffel informed skipper Aaron Jones about the decision and that effectively ended the US resistance.
That was the opportunity Surya waited for as he then finished the match in a jiffy with a flurry of shots.
But not before Saurabh Netravalkar (2/18 in 4 overs), the Oracle programmer from Silicon Valley, wrote a couple of perfect codes to remove an out-of-form Virat Kohli (0) with a delivery that shaped away and then bowled a slower one to find the leading edge of former Mumbai senior teammate Rohit Sharma’s willow.
Dube once again struggled on a slow track as India were 53 for 3 after 11 overs with 58 more to get in the last 9 overs. The shackles were finally broken when Surya uppishly flicked Ali for a boundary towards mid-wicket and Dube, after an arduous struggle of 25 deliveries, picked Corey Anderson’s slower ball to dispatch him for a six over deep mid-wicket.