TThe American cricket team defeated sporting powerhouse Pakistan in a stunning upset in the Men’s T20 World Cup in Dallas on Thursday.
The USA, who co-host the tournament with the West Indies, received just one 7% chance of winning by some bookmakers before the game. But the US team, which is competing in its first T20 World Cup, pulled what has been described as one of the biggest shocks in cricket history and now looks to have a good chance of qualifying for the next stage, the Super 8 stage. Meanwhile, Pakistan, champions in 2009 and runners-up in 2022, run the risk of being eliminated early from the tournament.
“I’m really proud of the boys,” said Monank Patel, USA captain and player of the game. after victory, which was achieved in a tiebreaker Super Over after the scores were level after 20 overs. “It was a complete team effort, from the first ball to the last.”
Aatif Nawaz, a British-Pakistani comedian and cricket commentator, took to X to express his surprise at the US triumph. “I genuinely never thought I would see that game, let alone the result,” he said.
Waqar Younis, former Pakistan national team player and coach, congratulated to the US for its “responsive victory”, adding that “Pakistan looked exhausted and defenseless on the ground”.
Americans, many recognizing that they are only now becoming interested in cricket, which doesn’t even make the top 20 in the country Favorite sports, celebrated the turnaround on social media. “Like, six people in total across the country know how to play cricket and they just beat Pakistan,” one user X posted. “Cricket Twitter tried to fight us so we decided to take over the sport in a few days LMAOOOOO,” another added.
Many were amazed that American ace Saurabh Netravalkar Apparently has a day job as a software engineer.
But the T20 World Cup is not over yet and the USA will have at least one more chance to defy expectations. Both Pakistan and the US face #1 ranked India in their upcoming matches in New York on Sunday and Wednesday respectively.
This story originally appeared on Time.com read the full story
