NEW YORK: The hotels in the Nassau County area in Long Island are filling up fast. There is a watch-party set to be held by the local authorities for anyone who didn’t make it to the India-Pakistan clash, taking place in an expanded park not very far from the heart of action. There could be about 6,000 in there, besides 35,000 at the ground –not even one ticket left unsold.
Predictably, Indian fans will most likely outweigh their Pakistan counterparts. A sense of celebration is now available among the Indian fans after Pakistan were defeated by United States of America –the arch-rivals should be easy meat.
But there’s a little catch. The US victory might just have blown open an almost ‘two-team group’. Imagine a situation where Babar Azam’s boys happen to beat India on some kind of lottery pitch at Nassau County Ground and go on to beat Canada and Ireland in their last two matches. In this case, India will certainly have to win against USA and Canada that are both on high confidence levels; otherwise they risk been thrown out of Group B right at group stage. Moreover, if Rohit & Co do get the job done, it could come down to Net Run Rate if all hosts go past Ireland too and three teams end up with three wins each.
There was no way anyone envisaged such a scenario as we started out –the Indo-Pak game was nothing but a prestige fight without much consequence on what would eventually become of Group A other than perhaps top-two placings.
Although Rohit’s boys need to be cautious about that, it is worse off for Pakistan. They are absolutely desperate for victory facing an opponent which has had edge over them lately.
On top of that , Pakistan does not have any experience playing here unlike India who have been camping here for last couple weeks before playing two games. Here batting becomes truly difficult and ICC already accepted that it is not the best for T20 cricket. The worrying part is that the pitch has up and down nature and despite world body’s assurances to work on it prior to this marquee clash, one wonders if it is case of too little too late .
As we have seen till now, toss can become extremely crucial on this pitch. With 10:30 am starts, there tends to be more movement with white ball in first session which makes Pakistan pace quartet of Shaheen Afridi, Mohammed Amir, Haris Rauf and Naseem Shah a bit more dangerous than they should be.
All four failed to rise to the occasion against USA, while spinner Shadab Khan struggled to take wickets in the middle-overs, which allowed US to go for a final assault.
“We are better than that in terms of our bowling and we know it. In first six overs we did not get any wicket and then in the middle overs if your spinner is not taking wickets then you feel pressure,” captain Babar said after USA defeated them by taking a dig at five bowlers who played against his team.
On the field, he was extremely annoyed with Rauf when the experienced pacer tried a yorker in the last ball with a mid-off up and ended up bowling a low full-toss which Nitish Kumar dispatched to the fence for a Super Over.
But in conditions that assist bowlers just slightly, this same bunch can raise from the dead. To begin with, they possess the pace that could unsettle India’s much-vaunted batting line-up as long as they are landing them properly. It rests on India to make sure that these cornered tigers remain caged within the corners and consequently breathe out into their final two games of their USA sojourn.
