India seal Super 8s berth with narrow victory over USA

NEW YORK: India booked their place in Super 8s stage of the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup 2024 as Arshdeep Singh’s four-fer and Suryakumar Yadav’s unbeaten half-century propelled them to seven-wicket victory against the United States of America (USA).

The victory strengthened India’s grip in Group A of the T20 World Cup 2024 with six points in three matches while USA remained second with four points in as many matches.

India; however, had to make hard yards to chase down the 111-run target as the USA bowlers bowled tightly.

While chasing 111, India got off to an unwanted start to the run-chase as they lost both their openers Virat Kohli (0) and Rohit Sharma (3) inside three overs with just 15 runs on the board.

Following the early debacle, Suryakumar Yadav joined Rishabh Pant in the middle and the two combined to anchor the run chase.

Pant and Yadav added 29 runs for the third wicket before the former was cleaned up by Ali Khan in the eighth over.

Yadav then stitched a match-winning partnership with Shivam Dube and steered India over the line in the penultimate over.

Suryakumar Yadav top-scored for India with an unbeaten 50 off 49 deliveries while Dube made a 35-ball 31 not out.

Saurabh Netravalkar was the pick of the bowlers for the USA with two wickets while Ali Khan took one.

Sent into bat first, the USA could only accumulate 110/8 in the allotted 20 overs despite Nitish Kumar’s brisk 27 in the middle.

The co-hosts had a disastrous start to their innings as their opener Shayan Jahangir (0) and wicketkeeper batter Andries Gous (2) fell victim to Arshdeep in the first delivery of the innings.

In-form Aaron Jones then briefly stabilised the proceedings with a cautious third-wicket partnership with Steven Taylor.

The duo added 22 runs for the third wicket until Jones perished in the eighth over after scoring 11 off 22 deliveries with the help of a six.

Taylor then joined forces with Nitish Kumar and the pair added a further 31 runs to the USA total before the former finally departed in the 12th over.

Steven Taylor scored 24 off 30 deliveries, laced up with two sixes.

Kumar then knitted a brief one-sided partnership with Corey Anderson before Arshdeep Singh struck again for India to dent USA’s march.

He remained the top scorer for the USA with 27 off 23 deliveries, featuring two fours and a six.

Following his dismissal, Anderson (15), Harmeet Singh (10) and Shadley van Schalkwyk (11*) added valuable runs to the home side’s total at the backend.

Arshdeep Singh spearheaded India’s bowling charge with exceptional figures of 4/9 in his four overs, followed by Hardik Pandya, who bagged two wickets.

Left-arm spinner Axar Patel chipped in with a wicket.