Blitz Bureau
NEW DELHI: Skipper Suryakumar Yadav blasted a majestic unbeaten 84, and seasoned pacer Mohammad Siraj bagged 3-29 as India saved themselves the blushes with a face-saving 29-run victory over the USA in their opening match in the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup in Mumbai on February 7.
Coming into the home World Cup as the defending champions, India are under pressure from the huge expectations for their third title. They suffered a setback on the eve of the opener when all-rounder Harshit Rana had to be withdrawn because of an injury, and the bad news continued as pace spearhead Jasprit Bumrah decided to sit out the match with illness.
The impact on the morale showed as the hosts, asked to bat first on a Wankhede pitch that offered early movement on which the ball was gripping and holding, as they slumped to 77/6 against some fine bowling by the USA. Skipper Suryakumar Yadav led from the front as he scored a half-century in his debut as captain in the T20 World Cup and helped the team post a modest total of 161/9. Siraj took over after that with a two-wicket burst and, with Arshdeep Singh and Axar Patel claiming two wickets each, prevailed over the USA by 29 runs.
The India captain continued his rich vein of form in 2026, scoring his fourth half-century in six matches and in the process completing 1000 runs as captain. He has scored 326 runs in six innings so far this year. His 84* is the second-highest score by an Indian captain behind Rohit Sharma’s 92 not out off 41 balls against Australia in 2024. This was Suryakumar Yadav’s 29th half-century in T20Is and helped him. Suryakumar started 2026 with 32 against New Zealand and followed it up with 82 not out and 57* in the next two matches. His lone failure was at Visakhapatnam in the fourth match when he scored eight runs before he rounded off the five-match series against the BlackCaps with a 63 off 30 balls.
