Between sips of milk tea at a restaurant within the Pakistani metropolis of Karachi on Friday morning, Jaffer Ahmed dissected the nationwide cricket group’s shock loss to the US.
“That is unbelievable and embarrassing,” Ahmed, 26, mentioned as he took bites of bread and lamented the defeat with pals. “How can we, with our cricketing historical past, lose to a rustic that doesn’t even have cricket in its DNA?”
Dropping to the US on Thursday within the Men’s T20 World Cup was a humiliation in Pakistan, the place cricket is the preferred sport and a part of the nationwide id. The nationwide group received the World Cup in 1992, led by Imran Khan, who later rode his sports activities fame to a political profession that included turning into prime minister.
Many People have been oblivious to the magnitude of their victory in Dallas. Nevertheless it was felt acutely within the shedding facet’s cricket-mad nation. As followers woke as much as the information, they started making an attempt to digest what had occurred, watching highlights from the match within the streets.
“We needs to be educating the united statesA.,” mentioned Muhammad Sagheer, 32, “not shedding to them.”
Followers have been infuriated by their group’s poor exhibiting. The gamers dropped catches and missed bats, handing essential alternatives to the People, mentioned Feroz Shah, 30, who known as Pakistan’s sport a catastrophe.
Pakistan had already been struggling, partially as a result of latest management shake-ups within the group and on the nationwide cricket board have damage morale, Aatif Nawaz, a British-Pakistani cricket commentator, mentioned in a video.
“A bitter capsule to swallow for Pakistan followers who’ve seldom seen darker instances,” he wrote on social media after Thursday’s sport, calling it one of many largest upsets within the sport’s historical past.
The US, which had by no means performed within the World Cup, is a late bloomer on the worldwide cricket stage. It ranks 18th on the planet, beneath Nepal and above Oman. Pakistan ranks sixth. Thursday’s win was the most important but for the U.S. group.
“Pakistan seemed exhausted and helpless,” Waqar Younis, a former star of Pakistan’s nationwide group, wrote on social media. Wasim Akram, one other former nice, known as Pakistan’s efficiency “pathetic.”
American curiosity in cricket is rising together with its South Asian diaspora. Buyers have poured over $1 billion into increasing the game nationwide. The home league performed its first season final yr and group homeowners embrace Microsoft’s chief govt, Satya Nadella. The US now stands a chance of qualifying for the subsequent spherical of the event, one thing seen as unlikely at first of the World Cup.
Some People celebrated their win over Pakistan on social media, lots of them in awe that one of many star U.S. gamers, Saurabh Netravalkar, has a day job as a senior engineer at a software program firm. Oracle, his employer, said on social media it was “happy with the group and our very personal engineering and cricket star.”
“It’s an enormous achievement, you understand, beating Pakistan,” Monank Patel, the present U.S. group captain, said after the victory. “I’m actually happy with the boys.”
One other concern reverberated all through the cafe in Karachi the place Ahmed was consuming tea with pals. Pakistan is about to face India, its greatest competitor, on Sunday, in an occasion that can take over each tv display screen in both nations.
“If we couldn’t win towards the united statesA., how can we win towards our archrival from India?” Sagheer mentioned.
