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The U.S. team pulled off a stunning upset in cricket on Thursday, beating cricket powerhouse Pakistan by five runs in the group stage of the T20 World Cup, a tournament in which the world’s top 20 cricket teams qualify.
This year’s T20 World Cup is the first the United States Cricket Association has played in since automatically receiving hosting rights. The 2024 T20 tournament will be co-hosted by the United States and the West Indies. Thursday’s upset near Dallas gave the U.S. topped Group A, which also includes India, Canada and Ireland.
The win came after a tense Super Over, a tie-breaking format similar to cricket’s penalty shootout. The US finished the Super Over with 18 runs to spare, meaning Pakistan needed 19 runs to win, but the US held on and Pakistan finished with 13 runs to secure a historic win for the US.
USA beats Pakistan in T20 Cricket World Cup
One of the biggest upsets imaginable
Pakistan made it to the final last time. It was just USA’s second game at the World Cup…and they won both!!! pic.twitter.com/l1AGYFtBFW
— Roger Sherman (@rodger) June 6, 2024
The home win was especially meaningful for the U.S. team, given that cricket is not a very popular sport in the United States. Most U.S. cricketers don’t play full-time. One of the game’s heroes, pace bowler Saurabh Netravalkar, works full-time for software company Oracle, which took to social media after the match to congratulate its engineers on their success.
This victory could be a turning point for the sport of cricket in the United States, with the buzz surrounding its first World Cup likely to propel the sport forward.
The U.S. next faces another formidable cricketing foe, India, on Wednesday in a group-stage match.
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