T20 cricket rarely follows scripts and the match between defending champions India and USA in the ongoing ICC Men’s T20 World Cup 2026 has once again proved it.
India entered the World Cup as firm favourites thanks to their form, experience and the all-round depth in the team. Before the match started, the conversation was less about whether India would win and more about how many runs they would score. However, things have not unfolded in an expected manner as the USA sent a timely reminder to the fancied hosts.
USA came up with a stunning bowling display to leave India reeling at 46/4 inside the powerplay. Just a few days ago, India were scoring runs for fun against New Zealand and were expected to do the same against USA. However, the Men in Blue were in for a rude shock as the USA executed their plans brilliantly inside the powerplay and will be fancying their chances now.
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India in big trouble against USA:
USA won the toss and elected to bowl first and their bowlers did not take long to justify the call. Saurabh Netravalkar opened the attack and troubled Ishan Kishan right from the start although the India opener managed to hit a six in the first over.
On the second ball of the second over, Ali Khan dismissed the dangerous Abhishek Sharma for a duck to give USA a dream start. Tilak Varma then provided the innings some early momentum by hitting Netravalkar for a six and two fours in the third over.
Tilak and Ishan steadied the ship before Shadley van Schalkwyk put his team on the front foot by taking as many as three wickets in the final over of the powerplay. The over started with a single before Kishan was dismissed on the second ball.
Two balls later, van Schalkwyk sent back Tilak before outfoxing Shivam Dube with a slower ball on the final ball of the over. At the end of the powerplay, India were reeling at 46/4 and would be hoping that the middle-order batters guide them to a challenging score.
At the time of writing this report, India were on 55/4 in the 10th over with captain Suryakumar Yadav and Rinku Singh in the middle.
