The USA cricket team have stunned the entire cricket community by sealing a series victory against Bangladesh in a 3 match T20I series. It is worth mentioning that this victory will be the USA’s first series win over a full-member team.
During the Bangladesh tour of USA 2024 a total of 3 T20Is were scheduled to play between May 21 and 25. The hosts won the first two matches of the series and sealed a series victory against Bangladesh.
Following the series loss, veteran Bangladesh all-rounder Shakib Al Hasan said this is a wake-up call for them ahead of the 2024 T20 World Cup.
“Certainly it is disappointing and we didn’t expect it but we must give credit to the US team for the way they have played,” Shakib said.
“I think no one expected that we will lose two games. Any match you lose as a team is disappointing and you don’t want to lose a game and obviously it is very disappointing. But having said that we have to play the World Cup and this series might be a wake-up call for us as we haven’t played the way we want to play.
“It’s a team game and everyone has to take the responsibility – you win as a team and you lose as a team. I don’t want to blame any particular person or any particular department. It’s just that T20 is such a format you have to play very good cricket in all three departments to win against any team.
There are no small or big teams in T20 cricket and that’s why it is more exciting than any other format. And the proof of that is in the last two games the way US played.”
Despite the loss, Shakib insisted that they did not take the opposition lightly. “I don’t think we took them lightly. In the first game maybe we couldn’t do what we wanted to do and in the second game exactly the same thing happened – we couldn’t execute the plans that we were supposed to do on the ground.
“In T20 every team is very much equal. I have seen the game between West Indies A and Nepal and they really played well and you are seeing games between Ireland and Netherlands and they are playing very close matches. Pakistan lost to Ireland and in T20 it is anybody’s game.
It is on the day who performs better, and so you cannot take anything lightly in T20 cricket because one or two overs can change the momentum of the game and completely change the scenario of the game. That’s why you are always up for the challenges and you cannot take anything lightly or anything for granted,” he said.
“If we take this as a preparation series for the World Cup, in that case we should have a lot more batting and bowling sessions and there should have been more facilities that we didn’t get at all.
I feel we had a proper net session for one day and even on that day the batsmen could not had required the batting session. And there was an optional day and the batsmen did not seize the opportunity,” said Shakib.
“For one day there was rain and we could not do anything on that day, while there are four grounds but we could train on only three pitches which I don’t think is ideal. And I think these things could have been better,” he said before insisting that it wasn’t an excuse.
Speaking on the game, winning the toss, Bangladesh decided to bowl first where Steven Taylor and Monank Patel opened the inning for USA.
The duo laid a decent foundation by adding 44 runs for the first wicket. In the fourth delivery of the seventh over Rishad Hossain broke the partnership by dismissing Taylor for 31 runs and dismissed Andries Gous for a golden duck in the very next delivery.
Aaron Jones on the other hand made a 60 runs partnership with Taylor and pushed the team’s core beyond 100 runs mark. Without much contribution from USA’s lower order, the hosts managed to score 144 runs for 6 wickets loss at the end of 20 overs.
With a 140 plus target, Bangladesh’s opening batters failed to provide the expected start. Soumya Sarkar was dismissed for a Golden duck while Tanzid Hasan lost his wicket for 19 runs while the team’s score stood at 30.
Bangladesh’s middle-order batters contributed some crucial runs for the teams which pushed the team’s score to a safer zone. But Ali Khan’s triple wicket spell once again made the USA stand tall in the second inning.
With 12 required off the final 6 deliveries, Ali Khan successfully defended the target by dismissing the last batter and led the USA to seal the series victory with three balls remaining.
Ali Khan was awarded the player of the match for his impressive bowling attack which bagged 3 wickets for 25 runs in 3.3 overs.
The final match of the Bangladesh tour of USA 2024 will be played on May 25 in Prairie View Cricket Complex, Houston while Bangladesh will look for a consolation victory before the T20 World Cup 2024.
