CHENNAI: Two defeats in two matches. Not an ideal start for USA particularly with its next match happening on the ill-fated Friday the 13th against Netherlands here. One more loss and the much vaunted American Dream would die a premature death, getting back on the long flight back home sooner than it would’ve liked. As much as you would want to downplay the significance of such age-old superstitions, the injuries to USA’s pacer Ali Khan and Jasdeep Singh, point to something ominous looming on the horizon for the Monank Patel-led side.
That is not all as there is an injury cloud hanging over the availability of Shubham Ranjane who had hurt his knee in the loss to Pakistan. After causing India some anxious moments in its opening fixture, USA’s challenge ended tamely against Pakistan, making it imperative that it win its remaining two matches, against Netherlands and Namibia, to retain hope of qualifying for the Super 8s.
Netherlands, meanwhile, shrugged off its narrow defeat to Pakistan in the tournament’s first match to record a facile seven-wicket win over Namibia. Had Max O’Dowd not handed that reprieve to Faheem Ashraf, Netherlands would’ve been merrily occupying one of the top two slots in Group A.
The plain-speaking Logan van Beek was critical of his side’s performance against Pakistan. “The Pakistan game for me wasn’t ideal. We were getting to those last few overs and were in control of that game and for that game to completely flip —, it was a very tough pill to swallow. But the beauty about sport is that it always gives you another chance and you’ve got to pick yourself back up and turn up again and so that game against Namibia was some good healing in terms of reminding yourself that you still are a good cricketer, it’s just T20 cricket, it happens a lot.
And I would love to be able to be sitting here right now to have two from two going into this game against USA to potentially secure a spot into the next round. But the reality is we’re not.”
van Beek, however, took pride in his team’s ability to cope with the turning tracks in both Colombo and New Delhi.
“The way that we set up our team is that we’ve got a number of options to go to. So tomorrow (Friday) night, yes, it could result in a little bit of spin, but it could also get a little bit dewy and slide on a little bit where the seamers might become more of an important option. So, the way we set our squad up is that we can adapt to different conditions.”