NEW DELHI: After orchestrating a historic victory over
Pakistan
, USA captain
Monank Patel
stated his team felt no pressure in the tense
Super Over
because most of the fans was rooting for Babar Azam's squad, which ultimately worked against them in their
T20 World Cup
match.
As co-hosts USA stunned 2009 winners Pakistan via Super Over in Dallas on Thursday, Patel scored a cool fifty.
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"I thought we should have finished the game (in regular time) and we should have never gone to Super Over. I mean the way we kept our nerves…and in the Super Over particularly, scoring 18 runs gave us a big upper hand to defend the target," Patel said in the post-match press conference.
So, what was the talk inside the team huddle at that crucial juncture? Were there any queasy stomachs?
"In the huddle we talked about - there's no pressure for us. All the pressure is in front of Pakistan. We knew that we didn't have enough support from the crowd. Pakistan had more support from the crowd.
"I thought it will backfire on them, and if we play good cricket, they'll be more under pressure," said Patel.
Born in Anand, Gujarat, Patel said his side bowled brilliantly in the Power Play segment and kept Pakistan batters on a tight leash.
"The way we bowled in the first six overs, I felt we didn't give them enough opportunity to score runs and we kept them under more pressure and it helped us," he said.
USA were always in the game when they limited Pakistan to 159, according to Patel.
"The plan was to win the toss and bowl first. We knew the initial first half an hour would help pace bowlers and the way we kept them quiet and took the crucial wickets in the power play, it helped really well.
"And yeah, 160 on this wicket with one side short boundary, I felt we were always in the game," he explained.
By assigning Saurabh Netravalkar to bowl the Super Over rather of the more experienced Ali Khan, the home team pulled a surprise.
However, the left-arm pacer led his team to an unforgettable triumph by successfully defending 18 runs.
"The plan was we wanted to make sure that we utilise the condition. The condition was left-arm bowler bowling cutters and wide yorkers from left-arm over.
"Ali Khan usually hits the stump and we wanted to make sure that we make them play outside the off-stump. And as a left-hander, the angle helps it. Saurabh had a good day, and I backed Saurabh, and yeah, that was the decision," he explained.
In regulation time, the USA also made the somewhat unexpected choice to push Nitish Kumar up the order and hold down
Corey Anderson
, a natural range hitter.
Anderson was to be kept for the final three overs, according to Patel.
"As a player he (Nitish) always thinks about the team first and I felt when I got out, I think it was 14th over or something. Nitish, the way he's batting, we wanted to back him.
"We wanted to make sure that even if the wicket goes, obviously, Corey was going next. We wanted to keep Corey in the last three overs. That was the plan," said Patel.
(With PTI inputs)
English (US) ·