India beat United States by 29 runs; Surya saves the day

MUMBAI: Reigning Twenty20 World Cup champions India defeated the United States in the first match, thanks to the heroics of skipper Suryakumar Yadav. India, after reeling at 46/4 in the powerplay, reached 161/9 after Surya scored 84 runs in 49 balls, including 10 fours and four sixes. More than half of India's score came from the captain's bat. In reply, the bowlers restricted the United States to 132/8, giving India their first win in the tournament.

India lost Abhishek Sharma's wicket on the very first ball of the second over. Ishan Kishan 20 (16), Abhishek Sharma 0 (1), Tilak Verma 25 (16), Shivam Dube 0 (1), Rinku Singh 6 (14) and Hardik Pandya 5 (6) couldn’t meet the standards as India fell to 77 for six. Axar Patel added a very crucial 41-run partnership with the captain in the final laps of the game. Arshdeep Singh was dismissed for four runs.

Suryakumar Yadav's innings included 10 fours and four sixes. Suryakumar scored 21 runs in the last over alone that included two fours and two sixes. South African-origin medium pacer Shadley van Schalkwyk, who took four wickets, crushed India. Harmeet Singh took two wickets, while Ali Khan and Mohammad Muhsin got one wicket each.

Mohammed Siraj started the comeback by getting Andries Gous (6) in the second over. This was Siraj’s return to the Twenty20 format after 557 days. In the third over, Arshdeep sent captain Monank Patel (0) back to the pavilion. In the next over, Siraj dismissed Sai Teja (3). Then Milind Kumar (34) and Sanjay Krishnamurthy (37) joined hands, took the score to 49/3 in the 10th over. In the 12th over, Varun broke the partnership by dismissing Milind.