Credit: X
Team USA, who are the ICC Men's T20 World Cup 2024 co-hosts, pulled off a sensational upset in their second match of the competition as they defeated the 2009 T20 World Cup winners Pakistan. However, things got worse for Pakistan after the loss as veteran USA and former South African cricketer Rusty Theron accused Pakistan pacer Haris Rauf of ball tampering.
Haris Rauf, who bowled the 20th over when the U.S.A. required 15 runs to win the match, failed to win the game for Pakistan in the final over of the regulation time as Aaron Jones and Nitish Kumar scored 14 runs to force Super Over, where Pakistan ultimately lost the game by 5 runs.
After the match, Rusty Theron took to X and accused Haris Rauf of ball tampering. Theron wrote, "@ICC are we just going to pretend Pakistan aren't scratching the hell out of this freshly changed ball? Reversing the ball that's just been changed 2 overs ago? You can literally see Harris Rauf running his thumb nail over the ball at the top of his mark. @usacricket "
Babar Azam reacts to shock defeat vs U.S.A.
In a post-match conference, Pakistan skipper Babar Azam reflected on the shocking loss against the U.S.A. at the Grand Prairie Stadium in Dallas and held the bowling unit responsible for the loss. He said, "Given the bowlers we have, we should have defended that total."
Babar added, "On this pitch, I think it was a defendable total for our bowling. We are better than that in the bowling. We did not take wickets in the first six overs. In the middle overs, if your spinner is not taking wickets, then the pressure is on you. After ten overs, we did come back but I think the way they finished (the) game in the Super Over, the credit goes to the US team."
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