'We should have never gone to Super Over' - USA skipper Monank Patel on historic win against Pakistan in T20 World Cup
United States of America outclassed Pakistan in the T20 World Cup game on June 6 at the Nassau County Stadium in New York.
United States of America outclassed Pakistan in the T20 World Cup game on June 6 at Grand Prairie Stadium in Dallas. After winning the toss and inviting Pakistan to bat first, the USA exerted pressure on Pakistan's batters from ball one. As a result, the Men in Green were reduced to 26 for 3 inside five overs. They huffed and puffed their way to 159 at the end of the 20 overs.
While chasing, the USA were in control of the game but lost the momentum in the final four overs. They managed to level the game and emerged victorious in the Super Over. USA captain, Monank Patel revealed that he would have been more satisfied if the team had chased the target in regular time. Patel led the charge by scoring 50 of just 34 balls as batters like Babar Azam and Mohammad Rizwan struggled to score.
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"When I got out, we were still in the game and I thought we should have finished the game and we should have never gone to Super Over. But the way we kept our nerves and in the Super Over particularly, scoring 18 runs itself gave us a big upper hand to defend the target," said Monank as quoted by ESPNcricinfo.
"The plan was to win the toss and bowl first. And we knew initially first half an hour it would help pace bowlers and the way we kept them quiet and took the crucial wickets in the powerplay, it helped really well. And yeah, 160 on this wicket with one side short boundary, I felt we were always in the game,” he added.
As a batter, you need to step up and build partnerships: Babar Azam
Babar’s innings came under the scanner as he had just fetched nine runs in the first 23 balls. He tied upping the ante but his innings ended with 44 runs in 43 balls. Certain decisions of the Pakistan skipper were much criticized as he trusted Mohammad Amir with the Super Over, who was playing international cricket after four years.
“First 6 overs while batting we didn’t capitalise. Back-to-back wickets always put you on the back foot, as a batter you need to step up and build partnerships. We were not up to the mark in the first 6 overs with the ball. Our spinners also did not take wickets in the middle overs so these things cost us. Very hard, all credit to USA, they played better than us in all three departments. Little bit of moisture in the pitch, it was also two-paced. As a professional you need to assess the conditions,” said Babar in the post-match presentation.
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