India captain Rohit Sharma admitted on Wednesday that playing on the two-paced, newly-laid drop-in pitch at Nassau County ground was challenging, and the team had to persevere to secure victories in each of their three matches in the ongoing T20 World Cup.
India achieved the highest successful chase at this venue, scoring 111/3 in response to USA’s 110/8, thanks to key performances from Arshdeep Singh (4/9), Suryakumar Yadav (50 not out), and Shivam Dube (31).
“We knew it would be tough. Credit to us for the way we held our nerve and got that partnership. Credit to Surya and Dube for showing the maturity and taking us through,” Rohit said after the match.
Rohit Sharma seemed more relieved than happy to have cleared the first hurdle
“Being in the Super Eight is a big relief — playing cricket here wasn’t easy (as) it could have been anyone’s game. We had to stick through till the end in all three games. We will take a lot of confidence from these wins,” he added.
The Indian captain praised each of the three key performers and specifically commended Suryakumar for adjusting his aggressive approach to lead the chase.
“He (Suryakumar) showed he has a different game to him, that’s what you expect from experienced players. Credit to the way he stuck through today to take the game deep and win it for us,” he said.
“We knew bowlers had to take the lead (as) run scoring was difficult. All the bowlers did the job, particularly Arshdeep,” said Rohit after India qualified for Super Eight.
Rohit explained that due to the expectation that seamers would dominate, the team opted to give Dube an opportunity to bowl as well.
“You want options and we should be able to use them as and when we can. Today, the pitch favoured the seamers so wanted to use him,” he said.
“(A) lot of these guys have played cricket together, very happy to see their progress. Saw them last year in MLC as well, they are all hard-working guys,” Rohit said while talking about USA cricketers.
Arshdeep, who delivered his best T20I figures for India, expressed his intention to capitalize on the seam-friendly pitch.
“In the last two games, I gave away little more runs, (and I) wasn’t happy with that. The team always shows belief in me and keep backing me, I had to deliver for them,” he said.
“The wicket is very conducive to fast bowlers and it’s helping us get some seam movement. The plan was simple, pitch it in the wicket and let the ball do the talking. Don’t give easy balls to score, our batsmen are also facing difficulties to score runs,” he said.
Expanding on his bowling strategy, the left-arm bowler mentioned, “Our strategy was to bowl hard lengths. In conditions like these, you can exploit the pitch better.” USA’s stand-in captain Aaron Jones, on the other hand, believed his team was competitive but narrowly missed out on a few runs.
“(We were) 10-15 runs short. If we got 130 then it would have been a tough total, that’s how it goes sometimes. The boys were very disciplined, really proud of the bowling unit,” he said.
“(It) feels good, this is what we wanted for USA cricket, enjoying it. We will recalibrate now, have a few meetings and come back strong,” he added.
Jones mentioned that USA’s usual captain, Monank Patel, is expected to recover in time for their final match against Ireland.
“Mostly he should be fit for the last game, just got a slight niggle,” Jones said.
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