In Houston, USA shocked Bangladesh with a five-wicket win in the first T20I of the three-match series and it was ‘Player of the Match’ Harmeet Singh who did not mince his words about how tough co-hosts of T20 World Cup have become saying “We are no walkovers.”
The upcoming T20 World Cup will be hosted jointly by the USA and West Indies from June 2 to 29.
However, despite being ranked ten places below Bangladesh, the US curtailed them for 153/6 but chased down the target with three balls in hand. Harmeet’s explosive 33 off 13 balls combined with Corey Anderson’s steady 34 off 25 ensured an unbroken partnership of sixty-two runs for the sixth wicket that resulted in a rare win for team United States.
“I mean you don’t always get an opportunity to win games against such big sides like this every day,” said Harmeet as quoted by ESPNCricinfo. “And these boys they have been trained so I know that is personal effort from everybody. And it means too much to us putting up a show against Bangladesh; we are no pushovers. I think our potential is just immense; there are a lot of match winners in this side. It gives us an advantage.
“There are also a lot of guys who can bowl two to four overs like what Steven (Taylor) did. Nitish (Kumar) and Milind (Kumar) can also bowl some few overs. We have depth on our bench as well. The competition within our team is helping us out quite a bit actually everyone wants to do something good and then it helps the team,” he stated.
Before hand, Harmeet had told his teammates that on paper Bangladesh looked very competitive but if they gave up without showing any resistance it would not be good thing at all.“Being our home conditions, we know this wicket. We have got all the information about this ground; it is a T20 format. You push them in the powerplay with a few hiccups, and then you can corner them and close out the game,” he said.
Harmeet spoke of strategic planning within the team and knowing their home conditions well. He made it clear that Bangladesh had made an important tactical error by bowling Mustafizur Rahman from the wrong end, allowing USA batters to exploit Prairie View’s high winds. By tormenting the USA lineup at first, Mustafizur ended up giving 32 runs away in his last two overs.
“I was backing ourselves to chase this down in the 18th over. Over here we are used to playing on slow pitches mostly so for us it would have seemed pretty flat and for Bangladeshi guys who are used to playing on flatter pitches, they might have found it a little bit tacky.
“We were actually expecting Fizz (Mustafizur) to bowl against-the-wind overs but when I saw him bowl from other side with wind behind him I thought we still had an opportunity for a twenty-run over from other side. But I don’t know whether they took us lightly or what but they didn’t have bowlers; those who could bowl from other end to go with us.”
They bowled Shoriful for one over, and somebody have got to bowl that final over, Harmeet said: ‘They were perhaps thinking about getting us out. Corey if we hang in there, get ourselves 20 runs in the last over as well then maybe we can win this game. Inside the last over we required less than ten runs. They started from the end with wind on it and ended up at the other end. We had faith in ourselves going into that last over.’
Harmeet commended team work and depth of players which he said has brought a competitive edge to the squad. He lauded his bowlers’ good job at restricting Bangladesh to chaseable scores which he says he is confident they can do under pressure.
“This is a great win – you don’t get to beat a top side like Bangladesh every day. Everything was perfectly placed for our readiness, faith and tactical execution. Every person played their part and this victory shows our potential and hard work,” Harmeet added.
