Mumbai: Defending champions India’s T20 World Cup campaign has started with a bit of a struggle. Despite a batting blunder, they managed to secure a 29-run win against the United States.

Led by captain Suryakumar Yadav, India scored 161 runs for 9 wickets, while USA scored 132 runs for 8 wickets.

Indian bowlers were successful in giving America a comeback. Siraj took 3 wickets, Arshdeep and Axar Patel took 2 wickets each.

3 wickets in one over!

Put into bat, India suffered an unexpected setback. They lost 4 wickets in the power play. Medium pacer Shadley van Schockwick became a thorn in India’s side. He took 3 wickets in his 2nd and 6th overs of the match, sending the USA camp into a frenzy. He dismissed Ishan Kishan in the 2nd ball, Tilak Verma in the 5th ball and Shivam Dubey in the 6th ball.

Ishan scored 20 runs off 16 balls (1 four, 2 sixes). Tilak Verma, who was playing a fast-paced game, returned with 25 runs off 16 balls (3 fours, 1 six). Shivam Dubey was dismissed on the first ball.

The sun is invincible 84

Even after that, India’s decline did not stop. On one hand, captain Surya Kumar was fighting, but he did not get proper support from the other side. Rinku Singh (6) and Hardik Pandya (5) also got out cheaply. 6 wickets fell for 77 runs. Axar Patel (14) contributed to a 41-run partnership. This was India’s biggest partnership.

Surya fought bravely and contributed to India’s challenging total. The captain’s contribution was an unbeaten 84 runs (49 balls, 10 fours, 4 sixes).

Abhishek Sharma was dismissed on the first ball of the match. He became the fifth Indian player to be dismissed for a duck on T20 World Cup debut. The others are Gambhir, Nehra, Shaddul Thakur and Deepak Hooda. Of these, Nehra and Abhishek got a “Golden Duck”.

Brief score: India-161 for 9 (Suryakumar 84 not out, Thilak 25, Ishan 20, van Schockwick 4 for 25, Harmeet 2 for 26). USA- (Krishnamoorthy 37, Ranjane 37, Milind 34, Siraj 3 for 29, Arshadeep 2 for 18, Akshar 2 for 24).

Man of the Match: Suryakumar Yadav.