India overcome USA's challenge; advance to Super Eight with seven-wicket win

NEW YORK: India defeated the United States in its third group game on Wednesday at the Nassau County International Cricket Stadium to move on to the Super Eight stage of the ICC T20 World Cup. India won the match with seven wickets and ten balls remaining, chasing a modest score of 111.

Score: USA 110-8 (20 overs), India 111-3 (18.2)

Chasing a score of 111, India did not have the best of the start with the bat as it lost star batter Virat Kohli in the very first over. It was Indian-origin Saurabh Netravalkar who dismissed the star batter for a golden duck. Netravalkar struck again in his second over as he dismissed Indian captain Rohit Sharma for 3 runs. India's score stood at 10/2 at that point. Although Rishabh Pant (18 off 20) and Suryakumar Yadav tried to stitch a partnership, Ali Khan struck for the US in the 8th over by dismissing Pant. With this, all-rounder Shivam Dube came to the crease to join Suryakumar Yadav. Surya (50 off 49) and Dube (31 off 35) scored an unbeaten partnership of 72 runs for the fourth wicket to take India to victory.

Earlier in the innings, Arshdeep finished with incredible figures of 4-9 while Hardik Pandya scalped two wickets, conceding 14 runs. For the USA, Steven Taylor slammed 24 while Nitish Kumar played a crucial knock of 27 off 23 balls.

Opted to ball first, Arshdeep gave the USA a double blow in the very first over of the game as he removed Shayan Jahangir for a duck and Andries Gous for 2. Stand-in captain Aaron Jones then displayed some brilliant shots before falling prey to Hardik Pandya for 11. After losing three wickets, Steven Taylor and Nitish Kumar out in the middle, started the rescue job. Axar Patel then provided his team with a big wicket of well-set batter Steven Taylor for 24. Arshdeep was then brought back into the attack and the pacer removed dangerous batter Nitish for 27, leaving USA tottering at 81/5.

Hardik Pandya bagged his second wicket of the match as he dismissed veteran batter Corey Anderson for 14. In the last over, USA batters Jasdeep Singh and Shadley van Schalkwyk managed to gather 7 runs to take their team's total to 110/8.