ICC Men’s T20 World Cup: Arshdeep Singh, Suryakumar Yadav shine in India’s win over USA

Left-arm pacer Arshdeep Singh, batters Suryakumar Yadav and Shivam Dube helped India clinch a nervy seven-wicket win over USA and propel the team into the Super Eight stage of the ongoing ICC Men’s T20 World Cup 2024 at the Nassau County International Cricket in New York on Wednesday.

Arshdeep registered figures of 4/9 to help India restrict USA to 110/8 in their 20 overs. Suryakumar (50* off 49 balls) and Dube (31* off 35 balls) helped India overcome a top order scare as they stitched an unbeaten 67-run partnership for the fourth wicket as India scored 111/3 in 18.2 overs.

The win is India’s third in as many matches in the ongoing ICC T20 World Cup.

Chasing a tricky 111, India lost both their openers—Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli—cheaply to stutter to 15/2 in the third over. Rishabh Pant made a decent start but was castled by Ali Khan for 18 as India looked in some trouble.

However, Suryakumar and Dube made sure there were no more hiccups in the Indian camp, as they ensured India crossed the finish line, without any drama.

The USA were penalised five runs when they took more than the allotted time between the overs three times. Defending just 110, the five runs proved to be costly.

Earlier, Arshdeep rattled the USA when he picked up two wickets—Shayan Jahangir off the first ball and Andries Gous with the last ball of the first over—to give India a flying start.

Jahangir was trapped in front, while Gous pulled one to Hardik Pandya at mid-off. Steven Taylor and Aaron Jones, who took over the captaincy duties from an injured Monank Patel, tried to resurrect the innings but Jones soon fell when he tried to hoist Pandya out of the ground, only for Mohammad Siraj to take a good catch at deep fine-leg.

Nitish Kumar (27 off 23 balls) was the lone batter who took on India’s bowling, especially on Pandya, but he couldn’t help his team go past a competitive total in the end.

The loss does not dent all hopes for the USA to qualify for the Super Eight. If the USA beats Ireland in their last group match, they’ll go through to the next stage.

If Pakistan beats Ireland and the USA loses to Ireland, then it will boil down to the Net Run Rate between Pakistan and the USA for a spot in the Super 8s.