USA's magical run to the Super Eights in 2024 at the expense of Pakistan is now a distant memory after Sahibzada Farhan, Shadab Khan and Usman Tariq all played key roles in casually disposing of USA on Tuesday during their T20 World Cup rematch in Colombo. 

Photo credit: ICC via Getty 

By Peter Della Penna (Twitter/X @PeterDellaPenna)
 
There was no repeat. Playing under the lights in the first ever night time T20I at Colombo’s Sinhalese Sports Club, USA struggled to adapt playing their first ever official T20I in Sri Lanka as Pakistan posted a total of 190 for 9 before easily keeping USA at arm’s length as the Americans went down by 32 runs on Tuesday night. The result means Pakistan moves to 2-0 in group play while USA remains winless at 0-2 and will need to win both of their remaining matches against Netherlands and Namibia – as well as need a series of other miraculous results to fall their way – to have any chance of advancing to the Super Eights once again. 
 
USA went into the match short-handed with Ali Khan ruled out due to a left leg injury sustained while fielding in the loss to India on Saturday night. Shubham Ranjane was deemed fit enough to stay in USA’s lineup despite suffering a right leg injury in the same match, but his inability to run in and bowl on the same injured leg meant he was picked as a batter only and USA opted to bring in pace bowler Ehsan Adil for his USA T20I debut rather than play an extra spinner from the bench in Nosthush Kenjige, who took 3 for 30 in USA’s Super Over win at Texas in 2024. USA also opted to bring in Shayan Jahangir for Sai Mukkamalla, who had been USA’s leading scorer in T20Is since the end of the previous Men’s T20 World Cup but had made 2 off 7 balls in USA’s loss to India. 
 
After being sent in to bat first, Pakistan got off to a hot start, reaching 54 for 0 in five overs. The first of several signs that today was not going to be USA’s day came in the first over of play. Just one ball after Saim Ayub drove Saurabh Netravalkar for six, the USA left-arm opening bowler hit Ayub on the pads walking across his stumps, but a not out decision was given on field which became crucial after USA called for a DRS referral which showed the ball clipping leg stump but with only enough of the ball to uphold the original not out decision based on an “umpire’s call” projection. 
 
After Ehsan conceded three boundaries to eventual Player of the Match Sahibzada Farhan in the second over, he was replaced by Shadley van Schalkwyk in the USA bowling attack for the fourth over and the allrounder induced a skied chance over cover with Ayub on 17 that USA captain Monank Patel misjudged while backpedaling and wound up never getting a hand to it as it landed just out of reach. The half-century partnership came up in the fifth over when Farhan clubbed Milind Kumar’s offspin for two sixes and a four in the fifth over. 
 
Van Schalkwyk created another chance off Ayub in the sixth over to finally break the partnership as a short ball was sliced to Netravalkar at short third for 19 to make it 54 for 1. Van Schalkwyk then bookended the over with the wicket of Pakistan captain Salman Agha for 1 when a short ball was pulled to Jahangir at deep square leg, who took a sharp catch running to his left along the rope to make it 56 for 2. 
 
But it would be a long time before USA would make another breakthrough as Babar Azam teamed with Farhan to generate an 81-run partnership across the next 8.4 overs. Farhan was the aggressor during the stand, bringing up a 27-ball half-century in the 10^th over with a two pulled out to deep square leg off Ehsan. Babar was struggling for timing at the opposite end but finally hit his stride against Harmeet Singh in the 13^th over, seizing on a series of poor deliveries to whack a six and two fours in a 21-run over. The stand ended in the 15^th when legspinner Mohammad Mohsin had Babar caught toeing a half-tracker to Milind at long-on for 46 to make it 137 for 3. Mohsin should have had two in the over but Andries Gous spilled an edge on an attempted cut by new batter Mohammad Nawaz on the final ball of Mohsin’s spell. 
 
Harmeet finally ended Farhan’s innings for 73 off 41 balls in the following over when he tried to muscle a short ball over long-off but picked out Sanjay Krishnamurthi running to his right to make it 143 for 3 in the 16^th. Ehsan returned for a third over in the 18^th and immediately gave momentum back to Pakistan by leaking a hat-trick of boundaries to Shadab Khan in a 16-run over. 
 
Van Schalkwyk returned for his final over at the death and took two more scalps while a possible chance at a third was grassed. He claimed Shadab for 30 off 12 when a top-edged pull was held onto behind the stumps by Gous to make it 177 for 5. Two balls later, Nawaz was missed again on 4 by Netravalkar at short third man after another tangled bit of footwork kept him from getting a hand to the ball. But Van Schalkwyk struck on the final ball of the over getting Faheem Ashraf slicing to Netravalkar who this time held onto a low chance diving forward at short third for 1 to make it 179 for 6. 
 
USA made it two in two when Netravalkar claimed his first wicket of the tournament getting Nawaz to flick a full ball to Jahangir at deep midwicket for 5. Usman Khan was then runout for a duck on the fourth ball of the over after missing a wide yorker from Netravalkar in which Shaheen Shah Afridi set off at the non-striker’s end looking for a bye. Usman was caught off guard and set off late before giving up when seeing that Gous’ relay to Netravalkar resulted in Netravalkar walking to the non-striker’s stumps to take off the bails. But Afridi launched a six next ball off Netravalkar before taking two more on the final ball of the innings that ended with Abrar Ahmed runout attempting to complete a third only to be short of Jahangir’s boundary relay to Gous. 
 
After coming into the tournament having never taken more than three wickets in a T20I, Van Schalkwyk claimed figures of 4 for 25 for the second match in a row. Netravalkar bounced back from his rocky day against India to take 1 for 40 off four overs. Mohsin had another very respectable spell of legspin to end with 1 for 27 off four. Harmeet returned 1 for 41 off his four overs. Ehsan was underwhelming on debut, conceding 0 for 39 off three overs. Milind ended as USA’s most expensive bowler, giving away 0 for 16 off his lone over. 
 
Chasing a target of 191, USA got off to a solid start in the Powerplay, reaching 50 for 1 at the end of their first six overs. Gous punched a boundary through the off side to get off the mark on the third ball before Jahangir yanked a short ball through midwicket for another boundary to end a nine-run first over. Jahangir kept firing in the second, crunching Ayub for six and four before an edged four past the wicketkeeper Usman in the third over took USA to 28 for 0 after three. 
 
Gous fell for 13 in the fifth, skying a drive to extra cover as Agha backpedaled out of the ring to take a catch making it 42 for 1. Jahangir blitzed Abrar’s spin for six off the first ball of the sixth over and then survived a runout chance on a tap and run single into short midwicket off the following delivery to move to 36 off 18 balls. But from that point, USA’s momentum quickly ground to a halt after a pair of sluggish innings from Monank and Milind. Monank crawled to 3 off 10 balls before his innings mercifully came to an end in the ninth skying a slog sweep against Shadab that was taken by the bowler to make it 58 for 2. 
 
Despite needing to score at nearly 12 runs per over for the last 11-plus overs of the chase, USA leadership opted not to promote any of their power-hitting options – Krishnamurthi, Ranjane, Mohsin, Harmeet – up the order and instead stuck with the original listed batting order that designated Milind to enter at No. 4. It only further exacerbated USA’s stall as Milind struggled to score anything but a single across his first 15 balls after which he had reached 11 runs. Robbed of his early rhythm after being starved of the strike, Jahangir scored just 13 runs off his final 16 deliveries before driving a catch to long-on for Shadab’s second wicket at 69 for 3 in the 11^th. Milind was dropped on 5 by substitute fielder Khawaja Nafay in the 12^th over off mystery spinner Usman Tariq. He eventually ended with 29 off 22 balls before Tariq had him slicing a catch to short third man on the final ball of the 16^th to make it 123 for 4. 
 
Krishnamurthi finally entered with 24 balls to go, but USA needed 68 to win. Trying to clear the boundary off his second ball, he was bowled on a failed leg side swat for a wicket to Abrar to make it 124 for 5. Harmeet made 6 before he fell in the 19^th over to Tariq, slapping a full toss to long-off to make it 152 for 6. Tariq was on a hat-trick after bowling Mohsin behind his legs first ball. A swing and a miss by Van Schalkwyk on the hat-trick ball meant USA needed 39 to win off the last over, cementing an anti-climactic finish. 
 
Ranjane had been quietly efficient since entering at No. 5 in a lost cause and finally brought up a maiden T20I half-century off 28 balls in the final over when shoveling a full toss from Afridi over extra cover. However, he fell two balls later for 51 after being pinned lbw on his foot by a yorker to make it 156 for 8. USA ended on 158 for 8. One run short of their total against Pakistan in Texas in the same tournament two years earlier, but miles away from the same competitiveness. 
 
Tariq ended with Pakistan’s best figures of 3 for 27 off four overs. Shadab returned 2 for 26 off four. Nawaz claimed 1 for 21 off three overs while Abrar took 1 for 30 off four. Afridi was expensive in finishing with 1 for 42 off four while Ayub was Pakistan’s least economical bowler on the day, giving away 11 off his only over. 
 
USA has two days off before returning to action on Friday against Netherlands in Chennai. Netherlands won their first match of the tournament earlier on Tuesday when they chased down a target of 157 with two overs to spare to beat Namibia by seven wickets in Delhi.