Left-arm pacer Saurabh Netravalkar gave the US a dream start in defending their modest 110-run total by dismissing Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma in successive overs.
Saurabh Netravalkar was one of the players to watch for the Indian team ahead of their T20 World Cup Group A clash in New York on Wednesday. Netravalkar, after all, had played a starring role in the USA’s stunning victory over Pakistan in Dallas with a superb bowling performance that included a heroic display in the Super Over.
On Wednesday, the left-arm pacer showed the performance against Pakistan last Thursday was by no means a one-off as he silenced the legion of blue-clad Indian fans at the Nassau County International Stadium in New York City by getting rid of Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma in successive overs.
Netravalkar got Kohli caught behind for a golden duck in the second ball of India’s chase of the 111-run target set by the Americans, poking at a wide delivery that was angling away from him and offering Andries Gous an easy catch behind the stumps.
Kohli, in the process, was dismissed for a golden duck for only the second time in T20Is and for the first time at the T20 World Cup. He had suffered his first golden duck of his T20I career during the third T20I against Afghanistan in Bengaluru in January this year.
Rohit then got a leading edge off a delivery that appeared to have stopped on him in Netravalkar’s second over, with Harmeet Singh running a few steps backward to collect the ball near mid-off. It was an all-Mumbai dismissal, with Netravalkar and Harmeet both having formerly represented the 42-time Ranji champions before shifting their bases to the US.
Arshdeep Singh had earlier registered his career-best T20I performance of 4/9 to help India restrict the USA to 110/8 after skipper Rohit opted to field in the final match of the tournament in New York.
