Saurabh Netravalkar
's brilliant Super Over against
Pakistan
helped the United States notch up a win that can be a game-changer for the sport in the country.
Cricket is slowly creating a buzz and the Mumbai boy's performances against India at the Nassau International County Ground on Wednesday will be followed with a lot of interest. India's bowling coach
Paras Mhambrey
, who is also from Mumbai, remembers the days when Netravalkar was coming up the ranks in domestic cricket.
"Saurabh is an inspirational story, I am really happy for him,"
Mhambrey
said ahead of India's optional training session on Tuesday.
T20 WORLD CUP: SCHEDULE | POINTS TABLE
Elaborating on the 32-year-old's early days, Mhambrey said: "I remember seeing him in some of the training sessions and he looked quite promising. He played a few games for Mumbai and it must have been difficult for him to leave that and find a niche for himself here," Mhambrey said.
The fact that he is a coder with Oracle and that he has come up this far, despite cricket not being his No. 1 profession, really surprises Mhambrey. "It is really a great story. It will show the way to many others who want to play cricket here," Mhambrey said.
For the likes of Netravalkar, Harmeet Singh, Monank Patel,
Milind Kumar
, the Wednesday game will really be an occasion to remember. The USA vice-captain
Aaron Jones
, who played a match-winning innings against Canada in the first game, said the Indians in their team were looking forward to the game.
"They are really excited, to be honest. Most of them have grown up many following their performances back home. I am quite certain they will be very keen to do well against their friends," Jones said.
The one thing that will be interesting on Wednesday will be where the loyalty of the fans lies. The Nassau International County ground has been a sea of blue all these days and there is a feeling that even though the home team will be playing, it won't be any different on Thursday. "I think it will be 50-50…people are noticing how we are playing. Cricket has now become part of the Olympics and it is a matter of time before the sport takes off in the US," the vice-captain added.
USA are on the verge of a historic qualification to the Super-8s. Even if they lose on Thursday, there is a storm brewing in Miami and there is a significant chance that most of the games will be washed out there, including India's game against Canada and USA's qualification duel with Ireland.
In that case, USA may not need to do anything else to qualify. "Yes, it will be massive if we go there. But for now, it's the India game that we have in mind. We have our plans, we won't be intimidated by the stars that India have and will look to play our games," Jones said.
English (US) ·