3 months ago
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I’m not even going to pretend to understand cricket. Please, I barely understand baseball. But I love America and I love a good immigrant success story, and this is right in my wheelhouse. So, Americans are not into cricket for the most part. We have baseball, which fulfills the “hit a ball with a bat” sports urges. But America is also the land of immigrants, and some of those immigrants come from countries where cricket is a big f–king deal. Like India. So here we are.
Currently, the Team USA cricket team – as in the national team fielded by the United States of America Cricket Association (USACA) – is full of first and second-generation Americans, several of them are only recently naturalized. These guys all have full-time jobs outside of cricket, and they’re apparently only getting paid like $250 a day to play for the national team. They are literally doing it for the love of the game, because American sponsors and American sports fans are not paying any attention to cricket. And yet… Team USA just beat Pakistan in the ICC T20 World Cup. Pakistan has one of the best teams in the world! Pakistan LOVES cricket. The Pakistani team is full of huge “cricket stars” who have lucrative sponsorships. Team USA has a bunch of Indian-American software engineers who just rock up to cricket part-time for the love of the game.
The US cricket team orchestrated a shocking defeat of powerhouse Pakistan following a dramatic Super Over victory at the Men’s T20 Cricket World Cup on Thursday in Dallas. The thrilling win was the biggest in USA Cricket history. The triumph could be considered one of the biggest upsets in the sport of cricket.
The United States is co-hosting the World Cup for the first time, along with the West Indies. Pakistan, the runners-up at the 2022 tournament, are ranked No. 6 in the world while the US team is No. 18.
Nitish Kumar hit a match-saving boundary to force the Super Over – a tie-breaking method in which whoever scores the most runs from six balls wins – much to the delight of US fans at the Grand Prairie Cricket Stadium. In the tie-breaking over, the United States posted a competitive score of 18 runs.
Saurabh Netravalkar took the ball for the US and limited the Pakistan batters to 13 to secure the win. USA captain Monank Patel was the team’s top batter and named the player of the match.
“I am proud of the boys,” Patel said after the win. USA’s opening match at the tournament was also a smashing success. The United States beat Canada in the Group A opener and now sits top of the group with 4 points.
Yeah, as I said, I love everything about this. I’m including some hilarious tweets below, and please look at the shots of the Pakistani team after their defeat. They were MAD. The NYT did a story on how the team’s defeat is going down back in Pakistan. One cricket fan lamented: “This is unbelievable and embarrassing. How can we, with our cricketing history, lose to a country that doesn’t even have cricket in its DNA?” Pakistan is “cricket mad” and they are finding it really difficult to cope in the wake of this loss. U-S-A!! U-S-A!!!
USA DEFEATS PAKISTAN AT THE T20 CRICKET WORLD CUP
ONE OF THE BIGGEST UPSETS IMAGINABLE
PAKISTAN MADE THE FINAL LAST TIME. JUST USA’S SECOND WORLD CUP MATCH EVER… AND WEVE WON THEM BOTH!!! pic.twitter.com/l1AGYFtBFW
— Rodger Sherman (@rodger) June 6, 2024
USA STUNS PAKISTAN AT THE MEN’S T20 CRICKET WORLD CUP 🚨
Biggest upset in the sport's history 🤯 pic.twitter.com/V5x3QYrdWN
— Bleacher Report (@BleacherReport) June 6, 2024
Americans: cricket is a dumb game
USA: wins 1 match
Americans: pic.twitter.com/rTB9msVpM3
— Shiv Ramdas Buk Riter (@nameshiv) June 6, 2024
Man is living the American and Indian dreams simultaneously. Ivy League degree, Silicon Valley job and beating the tar out of Pakistan https://t.co/nlxTZwQarn
— Blake Allen (@Blake_Allen13) June 6, 2024
Photos courtesy of social media.
