After months of speculation, if not apprehension, surrounding how cricket, not necessarily the most popular or American of sports, would be received in this part of the world in a tournament as high-profile as the T20 World Cup, a few early answers pointed to an encouraging start.
Rain stays away
The predicted rains stayed away on Saturday evening as the tournament’s opening match got off to a cracking beginning with a popular home victory. With Aaron Jones leading the way, USA made a blazing start to their Group A campaign, brushing aside neighbours and arch-foes Canada by seven wickets in a tall run-chase at the Grand Prairie Stadium in Dallas.
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Even until a few days before the first ball of the competition was bowled, doubts persisted over whether fans would populate the ground, with a vast majority of the 7,000-capacity stadium threatening to wear an empty look and the forecast for thunderstorms during the match adding to the gloom. As it turned out, some 6,000-odd people had a grand time with the weather Gods too in an obliging mood; victory for one of the two co-hosts was perhaps just what the doctor ordered to set the ball rolling.
Over here in New York, India warmed up for their Group A opener against Ireland on Wednesday by brushing Bangladesh aside by 60 runs at the Nassau County International Cricket Stadium, where they will play the first three of their four league fixtures. In his first game in India colours for nearly a year-and-a-half, Rishabh Pant sparkled with a blazing half-century and the bowling group, led by Arshdeep Singh, cut off all escape routes early on after the 2007 champions posted 182 for five. Against an opposition that has historically stretched them in this competition—Bangalore in 2016 and Adelaide in 2022—this was a comprehensive statement with Virat Kohli not playing, even if it was just a practice game.
Blow for Bangladesh
Defeat came at a heavy price for Bangladesh with left-arm paceman Shoriful Islam splitting the webbing between his middle and index fingers in his bowling hand, an injury that necessitated six stitches and puts him in doubt for his team’s first encounter, against Sri Lanka in Dallas on Friday. The Lankans, meanwhile, will take their first steps in a bid to emulate their title-winning run of 2014 when they run into a formidable South African outfit here on Monday.
‘We did well on new ground, drop-in pitch’
India skipper Rohit Sharma said he was happy with how things went in their 60-run win over Bangladesh in the warm-up match here. Pant struck a fluent 53 off 32 balls, while Hardik Pandya smashed 40 in 23 deliveries after Suryakumar Yadav helped himself to an 18-ball 31. “Quite happy with how things went. Pretty much got what we wanted. It was important to get used to the conditions. New venue, new ground, drop-in pitch—important to get used to it and we managed pretty well. All in all, happy with how things went,” Rohit said.
