All-round Pakistan dominate USA to make it two in two

Overcoming their hiccups against Netherlands in the tournament opener, Pakistan buried the ghosts of 2024 to record an impressive 32-run victory over USA in their T20 World Cup clash at the Sinhalese Sports Club in Colombo on Tuesday (February 10).

Having been asked to bat first, Pakistan rode on opener Sahibzada Farhan's rapid start to get off the blocks quickly in the PowerPlay on what seemed a good batting deck. Saurabh Netravalkar struggled again while debutant Ehsan Adil - facing his country of birth - also couldn't make incisions early on. Saim Ayub was a lot more pedestrian compared to Farhan even as he unleashed a Calypso-style pull behind square for a six off Netravalkar.

The breakthrough came from Shadley van Schalkwyk, who picked up from where he left off against India. The right-arm seamer had Ayub caught at short third man before removing Salman Ali Agha off the final ball of the PowerPlay. That brought Babar Azam to the middle and while Farhan continued to motor along at a solid clip to raise a 27-ball fifty, Babar struggled to get enough momentum going in the early part of his innings. So much so that he also failed to latch onto a free hit, only managing a one-handed swipe for a single.

The 13th over was when the momentum swung decisively in favor of Pakistan, after a brief period where USA applied the choke. And it was Babar who switched gears, tearing into left-arm spinner Harmeet Singh for a six and two fours. He continued to put the bad balls away although he soon picked out Milind Kumar at long on off leg-spinner Mohammad Mohsin. While Milind held onto the catch diving forward, wicket-keeper Andries Gous fluffed a straightforward chance in the very same over to hand Mohammad Nawaz a reprieve.

Farhan departed in the following over as he looked to push the score forward and while the death overs produced a lot of wickets, Shadab Khan's blistering 12-ball 30, through the course of which he scored a hat-trick of boundaries off Adil, ensured that Pakistan got to 190. As many as five wickets fell across the last couple of overs as Pakistan looked to up the ante, with van Schalkwyk returning 4/25 - identical figures to his returns against India.

Playing his first game of the tournament, opener Shayan Jahangir got USA off to a positive start, smashing a six and a four off Saim Ayub in the second over. Just when Gous started to pick up some pace, he miscued one off Mohammad Nawaz as Salman Agha held onto a skier. Skipper Monank Patel could not get any bit of momentum going though with a spin-heavy attack tightening the screws, and he eventually departed for a laborious 10-ball 3.

From 50/1 at the end of the PowerPlay, USA managed just 18 runs over the course of the next four overs, sending the asking rate skyrocketing. Jahangir holed out to long on, falling one run shy of a half-century as Shadab Khan bagged his second wicket of the evening. Usman Tariq, playing his first match of the tournament, proved nagging to put away as he slowed the pace considerably - and quite literally so, as he unleashed his full bag of tricks to keep the batters quiet. Shubham Ranjane did put the odd ball away but Milind Kumar crawled to 11 off 15 balls, unable to middle the ball despite his best efforts in trying to put it away.

Milind caught up with a couple of boundaries and a six but soon spooned a catch to short third man, following which Abrar Ahmed made a mess of Sanjay Krishnamurthi's furniture with a quicker one. Ranjane continued to battle on, even as the asking rate was now over 20 per over as he whacked Shaheen Afridi for back-to-back sixes to start the 18th over. But Tariq found himself on a hat-trick in the penultimate over as he kept Ranjane off strike, shutting the door on USA.

The only thing left to be ticked off was a fifty for Ranjane - one that he duly raised with a lofted extra cover drive in the final over, before Afridi yorked him LBW. 16 of the 20 overs sent down by Pakistan were bowled by the spinners - a ploy that paid off as they recorded a comfortable win to move to the top of Group A.

Brief Scores:Pakistan 190/9 in 20 overs (Sahibzada Farhan 73, Babar Azam 46, Shadley van Schalkwyk 4-25) beat USA 158/8 in 20 overs (Shubham Ranjane 51, Shayan Jahangir 49, Usman Tariq 3-27, Shadab Khan 2-26) by 32 runs