T20 World Cup: As demonstrated by the United States of America, they play the game, not the term. The experts didn’t give the Aaron Jones-led team much of a chance to win away from home against South Africa, but they played some outstanding cricket to make an impression on the cricket community. They did ultimately lose by 18 runs, but they had a lot of good things going for them. Instead, South Africa will be pleased with their performance; but, the team still has a lot of work ahead of them in the final two Super Eights games.
Quinton de Kock, batting first, gave Proteas an early advantage. His 28-run explosion in the match’s third over set the tone for them. With skipper Aiden Markram providing solid support with 46 runs off 32 balls, the southpaw went on to blast 74 runs off 40 deliveries. Tristan Stubbs scored 20 runs off of 16 balls, then Heinrich Klaasen displayed his class by smashing 36 runs off of 22 balls towards the conclusion of the innings. Once again, USA’s Saurabh Netravalkar had a spectacular night with the ball, taking two wickets and conceding 21 runs in four overs.
The United States lost early wickets in the chase. They didn’t pay attention to the contest until Andries Gous and Harmeet Singh showed up to the gathering. Gous got off to a poor start, but he picked up speed over the game and eventually smashed 80* runs off 47 balls. At one point, it appeared as though they could still win the game, but Kagiso Rabada dragged Proteas back into the match with a solid 38 runs off 22 balls from Harmeet. The game was altered when he gave up just two runs in the 19th over.
Talking Points for Match 41: SA vs. USA T20 World Cup
1. So near, yet so distant
Even though the USA is an associate nation, they put up a strong fight and came very close to winning. The squad put out an amazing effort, but they could have won the game with a few more overs here and there. The hitters appeared to be in good form, and if they continue to play with this energy, the USA can defeat England or the West Indies.
2. Quinton de Kock, a big-match player
Quinton de Kock’s form was a major source of worry before to the Super Eights. He didn’t perform well for South Africa after having a difficult time in the IPL 2024. But the southpaw looked sharp from the outset against the USA and ultimately contributed greatly to their victory. This ought to instill a great deal of confidence in him as the tournament approaches its conclusion.
3. Kagiso Rabada switches on the beast mode.
Rabada took three wickets and conceded just 18 runs in his four overs as the other bowlers in the team went for big totals. His squad may have been able to re-enter the game because he was the game’s star player with the ball. Rabada bowled an incredible over, giving up just two runs, after Tabraiz Shamsi let up 22 runs in the 18th over. It was desperately needed.
Also read: In the opening over of the T20 World Cup 2024, Quinton de Kock crushes Jasdeep Singh for 28 runs
Losing skipper Aaron Jones said:
I don’t wanna say disappointed. I thought we could have been more disciplined with the ball. But it goes this way sometimes. I think we need to be more disciplined. We will try and go back to the board. And come back stronger. Happy to be going home. I know the conditions well.
Winning skipper Aiden Markram said:
Gous played well. Made life tough for us. Couple of tidy overs from us and the margin could have been better. But lessons learnt. Nice start. At the half time, the wicket changed a little. It got slower. They bowled well. We would have loved to finish with a bang. Couple of lessons to take. Big for us that Quinny got his flow. Everyone else just chipped in. Couple of overs we could have tidied upon. A few executions here and there might have let us down. The wind was strong so I feel the bowlers have done a decent job.
POTM Quinton de Kock said:
There have been a few tricky wickets, nice to spend time out there. USA put us under pressure, it was a great game. Just trying to focus on scoring runs, rest of it will take care of itself. We have had a few tricky wickets coming into this game, so it was great to be out there. We still have a few games to win, we are coming up against big teams. It was a good game, but it changes next time. Different venue, different team, so you never know what’s out there.
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