harmeet singh

‘Suddenly you see Rohit Sharma at toss…’: USA’s Indian-origin players have mixed feelings before World Cup match

Danijones5 months ago05 mins

As many as seven players in the USA T20 World Cup squadare either born in India or have grown up here. Two of them – Saurabh Netravalkar and Harmeet Singh have even represented India at the U19 World Cup. Batter Milind Kumar has played over 100 first-class and List-A games for Delhi and Sikkim. The others – left-arm spinner Nosthush Kenjige, captain Monank Patel, fast bowler Jasdeep Singh, and left-arm spinner Nisarg Patel- have played age-group or club-level cricket in India. Nosthush Kenjige (C) of the United States celebrates with captain Monank Patel(AFP) They have played a huge role in making the USA a side to reckon with. USA have already made heads turn at this T20 World Cup by beating Canada and Pakistan. They are sitting at the second spot in Group A and need to win one of their remaining two group games to qualify for the Super 8 stage in the West Indies. Their next opponent, India, will be a different ballgame altogether. Not just because they are the strongest team in the group and one of the contenders to lift the trophy but also because many of the USA squad members once harboured the dream of representing India at this level. Now catch your favourite game on Crickit. Anytime Anywhere. Find out how “Team India, welcome to the United States of America. If we play our best game, we can sort of compete against top cricketers. So we’ll try to take one game at a time and not get overwhelmed by the star-studded team players and try to bowl to a batsman or bat against a bowler. We’ll try to keep it simple,” said Netravalkar. “You dream about this kind of thing and suddenly you see yourself with Rohit Sharma on the toss time. It’s unreal. It’ll be a high-pressure game. Honestly, we don’t want to focus too much from right now. We want to play the brand of cricket. We want to play against all the teams,” said USA’s Gujarat-born captain Monank Patel. “Growing up, I used to look up at Rohit Sharma. Rohit comes from my school. I’ll take things as it comes. Sanju Samson and Kuldeep Yadav, I have played under 19 with them in India. Axar Patel, I’ve played with him as well. So, it’ll be fun catching up and playing against as well,” said Harmeet Singh. “Obviously, we look forward. When we grew up, we were looking forward to play for the country, but things changed, and now we are playing against them. But on the ground, there are no friends. you’re there to win,” said Milind Kumar. “When I was in India, I wanted to put on the Indian jersey, but as you grow up and life happens to you, you just move to a different country. And now the next best thing you can do is play against India. So I would take this anyway ten out of ten times. I think it’s a massive opportunity as a kid growing up, you want to be in the World Cup, sits here. So, yeah, I think nothing to be more just looking forward to it,” said Nosthush Kenjige.

‘You play fire with fire…’: Pakistan born-Ali Khan on playing against Virat Kohli in India-USA T20 World Cup match | Cricket News

Danijones5 months ago05 mins

NEW DELHI: With India set to take on co-hosts USA in their T20 World Cup match at the Nassau County International Cricket Stadium in New York, interesting match-ups are on the cards.Ahead of the match on Wednesday, the host broadcaster shared a video of US cricketers Saurabh Netravalkar, captain Monank Patel, Harmeet Singh, Ali Khan and Corey Anderson talking about taking on India.T20 WORLD CUP: SCHEDULE | POINTS TABLEWelcoming Team India to the USA, Saurabh Netravalkar says, “If we play our best game, we can sort of compete against top cricketers. We will try to take one game at a time and not get overwhelmed by the star-studded players and will try to bowl against a batsman and bat against a bowler. Try to keep it simple.”US captain Monank Patel remarks, “You dream about these kinds of things. Suddenly you see yourself with Rohit Sharma on the toss time. It’s unreal. It will be a high-pressure game, we don’t want to focus too much on them right now. We want to play the brand of cricket we want to play against all the teams.”Harmeet Singh adds, “Growing up I used to look up to Rohit Sharma. Rohit comes from my school. I’ll take things as they come. With Sanju (Samson), Kuldeep (Yadav) I have played U-19 for India. Axar (Patel) I have played with him. It’ll be fun catching up with them and playing against them.”US pacer Ali Khan, who was born in Pakistan, added fuel to the rivalry by saying, “Virat Kohli has always been one of the favourites and coming up against him and playing against him, it will be really really good. He is very passionate on the field but so am I. On the field if things get heated up then they get heated up. I mean you play fire with fire. He’s right up there. They call him King Kohli for a reason.”Corey Anderson, who has played international cricket for New Zealand concludes, “That’s the beauty of playing against India. You know that you’re going to have millions and millions of eyes on you and you know they are against you. There are familiar foes that I have faced and played against. You have done this before and there is evidence to suggest that you can do it again.” With two victories in as many games, the USA squad has been dominating the T20 World Cup. The Indian team, which the US team has never played in any format, is packed with IPL superstars.Among the USA team, five were Indian natives. The team’s India-born players include Ronak Patel, Nisarg Patel, Saurabh Netravalkar, Harmeet Singh, and Milind Kumar. In the one and only IPL match he took part in, Harmeet Singh dismissed Ross Taylor for Rajasthan Royals, that was then led by the present India head coach Rahul Dravid.

T20 World Cup: Pakistan didn’t play well in all three departments, says Babar Azam | Cricket News

Danijones5 months ago06 mins

NEW DELHI: In their T20 World Cup opening match in Dallas on Thursday, Pakistan lost to the USA in the Super Over. Captain Babar Azam later acknowledged that his team did not play at its best in all three areas of the game.Pakistan had a difficult start, losing three wickets in the powerplay to finish at 30 for 3. The innings was then stabilized by a 72-run partnership off 48 balls between Babar Azam and Shadab Khan.In spite of their best efforts, the USA held Pakistan to 159/7 before matching the total and winning the Super Over to cause a significant upset.T20 WORLD CUP: SCHEDULE | POINTS TABLEBabar said that Pakistan was unsatisfactory with their batting towards the end of the match, having failed miserably in the Powerplay and bowling slowly in the middle overs. Then, in the middle overs, they failed to take wickets with spin because they did not carry out their early plans to bowl quickly.“To be honest, whenever you lose a game, you are always upset. We did not play well in all three departments. For six overs, I think we did not capitalise properly, but later on, after the 10th over we got momentum, but again we lost too many wickets and then your momentum is gone. So, I think as a batting unit we need to step it up in the middle and in the end,” Babar said after the match.After losing three wickets in the Powerplay, Babar helped his team recover by scoring 44 from 43 balls. He acknowledged that the game changed when Pakistan lost consecutive wickets.“The first six overs, the ball was holding and was swinging. But later on, I didn’t feel it was a different wicket. It settled down a bit. Because of the early start – the matches are starting at 10.30 am – the fast bowlers will get a little help. There was some juice in the pitch early morning. So, they utilised that and executed their plan. It was difficult in the beginning, but we covered it.“I think when we lost the wickets back-to-back, that was the turning point. But as a professional, you have to step up against such a team in the batting… in the middle order. This condition is not an excuse…they played well, but I think we played badly,” he added.Mohammad Amir conceded eighteen runs in the Super Over, which the USA won with a boundary off the last ball of the normal overs. Pakistan lost several unnecessary extras due to wides and a series of overthrows.The Pakistan captain credited USA’s batters Aaron Jones and Harmeet Singh for their aggressive running between the wickets. “He (Amir) is an experienced bowler, he knows how to bowl and we are just trying to field the ball. But I think the US batsmen were a bit smart, when the ball was coming to the keeper he was running. So, I think that was a plus point for the batters in the Super Over.”Pakistan will next take on bitter rivals India on Sunday in New York. Babar also stated that even though they lost to the United States, they would not be changing their ball-based death-over tactics for that crucial encounter.“The plan is simple: We try to hit yorkers and we are not changing any plans because the ball is reversing and our bowlers are very accurate, so our play will not be any different,” he concluded.(With IANS inputs)