USA displayed their strength to world cricket after stunning Pakistan in a T20 World Cup 2024 match at home a couple of months before. Jointly hosting the tournament alongside the West Indies, USA punched above their weight by qualifying for the Super Eights in place of the likes of Pakistan, Ireland and Canada.
USA had defeated Canada and Pakistan in the tournament to make it to the Super Eight stage. Pakistan-born USA pacer Ali Khan, who was also part of the tournament, believes that his team has the capability of beating any team on its day and not just Pakistan.
"We weren't under pressure, they were. We knew we were capable of beating them. We beat Pakistan in all four departments, including fitness," the pacer said.
"We are capable enough of beating them (the Men in Green) again. No disrespect to them, but I think we are a really good side, if we have a full-strength squad we can beat any team on our day, not just Pakistan but it will be a great game of we play them again," he added.
USA's stunning win over Pakistan
Monank Patel's USA had stunned the Babar Azam-led Pakistan team in the T20 World Cup. After restricting the 2009 T20 World Cup champions to 159, they matched their score despite having a chance to win it in the regulation 40 overs. The match went into the Super Over, where USA made 18 batting first and restricted the Men in Green to 13/1.
Monank Patel and Saurabh Netravalkar were the two major stars, however, Aaron Jones, Andries Gous and Nitish Kumar also played crucial roles. Netravalkar bowled the all-important Super Over, while he took 2/18 in his four overs of the regular contest.
Monank scored a fifty, while Jones and Nitish took the team towards the Super Over with their unbeaten knocks of 36 and 14, respectively.
The United States had posed challenges to even India in the group stage, which highlights their strength even more
