GRAND PRAIRIE, Texas (AP) — Aaron Jones hit the ball out of the park again and the United States beat cricket powerhouse Pakistan in a super over tiebreaker in one of the biggest upsets in Twenty20 World Cup history.
Jones, who produced a game-winning batting performance in the tournament’s opening match against Canada, again played a key role in Thursday’s dramatic win over 2022 runners-up Pakistan.
Cricket has a long, though lesser known, history in the U.S. Cricket is the national game of Pakistan, which has been a powerhouse in the cricketing world for many years, appearing in the T20 World Cup finals three times.
The stars are household names, while Jones and the U.S. team came in under the radar.
“It was an unbelievable performance playing Pakistan for the first time in a World Cup and winning,” U.S. captain Monankh Patel said. “Beating Pakistan is a big accomplishment.”
Patel said that as far as he knew, the U.S. team’s operations were going according to plan.
“We don’t care what people say. We know our worth and our abilities. We just focus on the game,” he said. “We don’t want to get emotions up or down.”
“We’re just going to make sure that whatever win we get today, we enjoy it and come back fresh the next day.”
It has been a disastrous start for captain Babar Azam’s Pakistan, who are set to take on tough opposition India in New York on Sunday with only the top two teams from the five-nation group qualifying for the playoffs.
“It’s all thanks to the USA,” Babar said, adding that the Americans performed well batting, pitching and fielding. “That’s why we won.”
“We couldn’t take advantage of our chances in the first six overs. We were on a roll but successive wickets hurt us.”
Still in the shadow of their upset in Texas, Scotland recorded a five-wicket win over Namibia in Bridgetown, Barbados, to top Group B. Namibia won by 155 for 9, with Scotland reaching the winning tally with nine balls remaining.
The match in Grande Prairie ended after more than a full round.
Jones, who scored 94 off 40 balls against Canada, once again took centre stage for the co-hosts with a crucial knock of 36 off 26 balls to take the match into the Super Over.
Jones hit a six off Haris Rauf in successive deliveries, followed by a single, before Nitish Kumar bounded off the final delivery of regulation to leave the score level at 159.
Pakistan’s experienced fast bowler Rauf gave up 14 runs off the last six balls.
Pakistan panicked in the Super Over when 32-year-old fast bowler Mohammed Amir, who was part of the 2009 winning team, conceded 18 runs, including seven off a wide ball, when Jones came out to bat.
For the USA, India-born left-arm fast bowler Saurabh Netravalkar took 2-18 in his four regular overs and then conceded just 13 runs in the Super Over to seal America’s historic win.
The USA stunned Pakistan during regular time, with captain Patel scoring 50 off 38 balls and Andries Guth adding 35 to take the home team to 159 for 3.
Pakistan’s batting, which has struggled for a year in the sport’s shortest format, weakened further against disciplined US seam bowling, being restricted to 159 for seven.
Steven Taylor gave the home team a perfect start when he got Mohammed Rizwan out with a brilliant one-handed catch inches from the turf in the second over off Netravalkar’s delivery.
Nostash Kenjige’s (3-30) left-arm spin also caused trouble for Pakistan, who slipped to 26-3 after five overs.
Babar (44) and Shadab Khan (40) tried to regain momentum and put together a stand of 72 runs but Kensige broke through in the 13th over.
Babar, who became the world’s leading run-getter in T20 games to surpass Virat Kohli’s record of 4,038 runs, looked out of form in his 43-ball batsmanship but fell leg-before wicket to Jasdeep Singh’s delivery in the 16th over to leave Pakistan at 125-6.
Pakistan’s total was lifted only thanks to Shaheen Shah Afridi’s 23 runs off 16 balls, including two sixes towards the end.
Scotland wins
Captain Richie Berrington scored an unbeaten 47 off 35 balls and forged a fifth-wicket partnership of 74 with Michael Leask (35 off 17 balls) to guide Scotland to their first win against Namibia in four T20 internationals.
Scotland picked up a point in their rain-cancelled opening match against England and currently sit top of Group B with three points, ahead of Australia and Namibia, both with two points each, who completed their opener by beating Oman in a super over.
Australia will play England on Saturday.
Captain Gerhard Erasmus scored 52 off 30 balls and shared 51 for the fifth wicket with Zane Green (28) as Namibia elected to bat and made 155 for 9.
Erasmus then took 2-14 in the eighth and tenth overs to put Scotland ahead at 69-3 midway through the innings, but Berrington and Leask extended the lead to 73-4 in the 11th over to seal the win for Scotland.
“I don’t think we’ll be out of this for a while,” Leask said. “It feels really awful.”
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