Tag: USA Cricket

How USA Cricket advanced in the T20 World Cup thanks to … a wet field

THANK YOU MOTHER NATURE! USA! USA!

The real hero in Team USA’s historic move to the final eight teams in the 2024 T20 World Cup is … MOTHER NATURE.

YES, TEAM USA MOVED ON BECAUSE OF A WET FIELD! USA! USA! USA!

Seriously. That’s what happened. After the massive upset of Pakistan and that near-win over India, the team was set to play Ireland in Lauderhill, Florida on Friday. But the pitch was wet and a thunderstorm came in, so the match was called. That means both teams earned one point in the standings and USA advanced to the Super 8.

Pretty wild stuff. What a way to move on!

 

 

A brutal 5-run penalty dashed USA Cricket’s hopes of upsetting powerhouse India at men’s ICC T20 World Cup

It changed the entire match.

Just last week, the U.S. shocked the sports world when USA Cricket — yes, there is a U.S. cricket team — upset Pakistan at the men’s ICC T20 World Cup. And as stunning as that win over Pakistan was, the U.S. had a chance to take it a step further against top-ranked India in the group stage on Wednesday.

Surprisingly enough, the U.S. gave India a scare. But one call, in particular, effectively ended Team USA’s upset hopes.

ICC has pace of play rules in place at the World Cup, which require teams to not exceed 60 seconds between overs (think at-bats in baseball terms). With the U.S. teetering to a winning pace with little margin for error (India needed 35 runs on 30 remaining balls), the umpire alerted Team USA captain Aaron Jones that he was issuing a five-run penalty for exceeding the 60-second limit on three occasions.

That took India’s run tally to 81 through 15 overs (out of 20). So now, India only needed 30 runs to hit the target score of 111 on 30 remaining balls. With the U.S. already using its strongest bowlers in the opening 10 overs, India was easily going to hit 111. Without the penalty, it wouldn’t have been as certain — though India still would have been favored to win.

So, yeah, those five runs were huge as India won the match in the 19th over 111-110 by seven wickets.

Still, it was a great effort from a U.S. squad that can advance to the knockout stage with a win over last-place Ireland.

Fans, though, were quick to point to the five-run penalty as a turning point in the match.

This was how Twitter/X reacted

The U.S. will face Ireland on Friday.