The T20 Cricket World Cup is well underway in the USA and West Indies, with everything from the previous world No. 1 fast bowler getting bowling coaching in New York, to the United States phenomenally winning against Pakistan. This World Cup has so far been quite strange to say the least. Join me, Zach from the Political Outlook as I give you an overview of this year’s Cricket World Cup.
Why the USA?
To kick off this series of strange occurrences, I was myself surprised to find out where this tournament was being held. However, given the recent explosion of cricket interest in the United States, I probably shouldn’t have been. The United States has not been historically known to compete in cricket, due to it simply just not being terribly interesting to much of the US population. The Cricket World Cup was almost undoubtedly a way to spread Cricket to the United States, via competition, accessibility, and participation.
This World Cup so far
The Cricket World Cup got underway on Sunday 2nd June, with a match between Canada and the United States. The US comfortably won that match by 7 wickets with a further 2.2 overs to go. After that first match, there was a series of interesting and tense cricket matches, but with teams that had only just scraped through to the cup. For example, a super over brought about a victory for Namibia against Oman. Unfortunately, matches such as these do not draw in large crowds. Even though they played at the Kensington Oval, Barbados, a place famous for drawing large crowds and amazing atmospheres.
There were a few uninteresting games, such as England’s game against Scotland, where Scotland scored 90 runs off their reduced level of 10 overs instead of 20 (due to rain). This poised England to have to achieve 109 runs off 10 overs as a Duckworth-Lewis-Stern par score. The match was however abandoned due to rain. On the same day, Uganda were bowled out for 58 runs verses Afghanistan.
USA’s win versus Pakistan
However, this is absolutely not to say that this World Cup has been boring. There was one key moment in this World Cup where almost everyone’s head turned. USA vs Pakistan. At the beginning, one thinking rationally would have expected Pakistan to steamroll the US, however that was not the case. The opening bowlers began the Pakistani batting innings and they were definitely on top. A shaken up Pakistan managed to get a good partnership between Babar Azam and Shadab Khan which steadied the ship, and Pakistan finished their innings on 159 for 7 wickets.
So, the US came out to bat with a good total set to achieve, however, some very good opening bowlers. Nonetheless, the USA got stuck in to the attack, and brought the run chase right down to the final over. With some tense boundary hitting, they took it to a super over and eventually won with Pakistan failing to achieve their set total of 18. This was undoubtedly the biggest shock of this Cricket World Cup, almost no one expected this from the USA.
Dale Steyn is a beginner!
This World Cup has also not been without its frivolities. A video surfaced and went viral all over Instagram of Dale Steyn getting bowling coaching from an interactive experience in the middle of New York. The workers of this interactive experience would have been shocked to find a previously world No. 1 fast bowler for 6 years in a row being coached at their facilities.
This World cup is an incredible spectacle. I’m sure that it will continue to be incredible for every one of its participators and enjoyers.
Credit:
Cover Page: https://www.usatoday.com/gcdn/authoring/authoring-images/2024/04/26/USAT/73472605007-2023783235.jpg
Canada Vs USA: https://www.samaa.tv/images/icc-t20-world-cup-2024-us-vs-canada-2-2.jpg
Dale Steyn: https://thedailyguardian.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/1717671322812_Dale-Steyn-e1717676979978.webp
