USA pacer Ali Khan has suggested that their win over Pakistan in the group stage of the T20 World Cup wasn’t a fluke. The Pakistan-born Ali revealed that between India and Pakistan, the USA always fancied beating the latter due to their history. USA defeated Pakistan in the group stage with the result being deemed as the shock of the tournament as the T20 World Cup co-hosts managed to qualify for the Super 8 stage on the back of that result. It took the USA a Super Over to register a famous win over Pakistan, with Ali labelling the game as an emotional one for obvious reasons.
“The whole of Pakistan would’ve been angry with me had I bowled the Super Over. But, they didn’t give me the ball. It was actually a very good call otherwise my entry in Pakistan would’ve been banned. The game against Pakistan was an emotional one as we had not played such a big team before. So they face Pakistan in a World Cup, especially with the kind of players they have like Babar Azam, Rizwan, Fakhar and Shaheen Afridi, was a big thing. We had played Canada in the opening match but we regularly against them,” Ali said during a discussion on Caught Behind.
Speaking on USA’s rise in the tournament, Ali insisted that the series win over Bangladesh prior to the T20 World Cup gave them huge confidence heading into the tournament.
“But, the series against Bangladesh before the World Cup was a huge confidence booster. We beat them and it was the first time we won a series against a Test playing nation. That gave us a lot confidence going forward. We knew we can easily beat Canada and Ireland. Then it was about picking one team between India and Pakistan that we can beat. We had confidence that we can beat Pakistan. We had planned accordingly and were all over them from the first ball. I think they had a good phase when Babar and Shadab were batting, other than that we dominated Pakistan,” he added.
Ali labelled Pakistan as an unpredictable side, saying that they will either beat you badly or vice versa.
“If you look at Pakistan’s history, they will either destroy you or themselves. Thankfully, the latter happened. It was a lucky day for us and the win was important,” he concluded.
USA finished second in Grouo A behind India with five points from four games.
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