Phew! That Was Close
Editor-in-Chief of indiacommentary.com. Current Affairs analyst and political commentator. Author of Cyber Scams in India, Digital Arrest, The Money Trap and The Human Hack
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By Sunil Garodia
First publised on 2026-02-08 04:15:17
About the Author
Editor-in-Chief of indiacommentary.com. Current Affairs analyst and political commentator. Author of Cyber Scams in India, Digital Arrest, The Money Trap and The Human Hack
View all posts by this Author
Some teams have the knack of being giant slayers. USA is one of them. In the last T20 World Cup, they beat Pakistan. Yesterday, they came very close to beating India. It required a special knock from Suryakumar Yadav and some disciplined bowling effort for India to escape with a 29-run win.
Consider the facts: India won by 29 runs. Suryakumar Yadav scored 21 in the last over and 48 off the last 18 balls he faced. If he had not produced this magical innings, India would have been beaten fair and square.
As Wankhede has a reputation of being a batter's paradise, India did the right thing to bat first on winning the toss. But USA had other plans. In no time, India were 46 for 4 and then 77 for 6, and staring down the barrel. At that point, the match was all but lost, for anything below 100 was not defensible.
But Surya played some vintage shots and did not leave any delivery. He dragged deliveries outside off to hit some towering sixes on the leg side. It was this effort which meant that India put 161 on the board and gave the bowlers some chance.
When USA batted, Mohammed Siraj, drafted into the team just 48 hours ago in place of the injured Harshit Rana, bowled exceptionally well to take two wickets up front and when Arshdeep Singh too got into the act, USA were reeling at 13 for 3. After that, there was some resistance from Milind Kumar and Sanjay Krishnamurti but once Milind was stumped by Ishan Kishan off the bowling of Varun Chakrabvarty, it was all over for the USA as wickets fell at regular intervals, though Shubham Ranjane tried to take the fight to India. Eventually, they ended at 132 for 8.
USA proved that they have the talent and are the team to watch. India also proved that despite the initial setbacks, they had the bowling armoury to defend a small total.
There is only one Surya (Sun) in our Solar System. But on two consecutive days, Vaibhav Suryavanshi and Suryakumar Yadav have shown that India has two.
