USA defeated Pakistan in one of the biggest upsets in the T20 World Cup history. Playing their first-ever T20 World Cup, the United States of America, a nation where cricket is not even in the top three sports, has gone on to win its first two matches of their maiden T20 World Cup appearance against Canada and now Pakistan. Defeating a full-member nation is probably the result, many didn’t expect from the USA side but the result now only has thrown spanner in the works for Babar Azam and Co but has also made the qualification scenario interesting, as far as Group A is concerned.
USA already have two wins in their kitty while all three of Pakistan, Ireland and Canada have lost their respective opening games. India, the fifth team in the group, have won the only game they have played so far. Currently, India are expected to advance to the Super 8 but USA have a real chance ahead of Pakistan to qualify, being the second team from Group A.
USA have to ensure that they beat Ireland in one of their remaining two games because even if they lose to India, they will have six points in the bag. For them to qualify, they will have to hope India to win all their remaining games because if USA beat Ireland and Pakistan lose to their arch-rivals, the Men in Green would only get to four points, which won’t be enough.
If USA beat India — which won’t be easy given the Men in Blue have already played a game in New York and the co-hosts will have to adapt to the surface, which has been challenging so far, coming from Dallas, where the contest between bat and ball was much better — USA can even top the group, but it won’t matter given the seedings for Super 8 have already been decided.
Hence, the India-Pakistan game has suddenly become quite crucial as it didn’t have a lot riding on it prior to the result of the USA-Pakistan game, apart from being another chapter in the long-running rivalry of the neighbours.