Is the American dream over already? If so, it was fun while it lasted.
After cannily negotiating the Money Group at the T20 World Cup, the USA immediately found going a whole lot tougher on their debut in the Super Eight.
The tournament co-hosts were beaten by on-song South Africa in their first match outside of their homeland in the competition, losing by 18 runs.
USA might have thought they had the measure of this competition after their glorious run through the group stage. Wins over Canada and Pakistan in Dallas were well merited, while they were one stop-clock penalty away from really pushing India close in New York, too.
Even the weather was on their side, washing out their final game against Ireland and so ensuring Pakistan’s final game was academic and that they could not be beaten to a place in the Super Eight.
As soon as they have left behind their home comforts and flown to the Caribbean, though, things are all of a sudden much trickier.
South Africa themselves looked happy to be in Antigua. Despite picking up four straight wins in topping their group, the Proteas batters found the first phase a grind. Not one of them had a strike rate of a run a ball in the competition so far.
Quinton de Kock, for one, looked grateful for the friendlier facilities on offer at the Sir Vivian Richards Stadium. The opener savaged 74 from 40 balls, and shared in a stand worth 110 in less than 10 overs with Aiden Markram.
De Kock was particularly harsh on Jasdeep Singh, taking him for 28 from his first over.
Most of the batters weighed in. Markram made 46 in 32 balls, Heinrich Klaasen 36 not out in 22 and Tristan Stubbs 20 not out in 16, as South Africa made 194 for four from their 20 overs.
That actually represented decent damage limitation for the USA, after the early onslaught. Harmeet Singh took two wickets in two balls, while Saurabh Netravalkar continued his fine tournament. The computer programmer’s two for 21 included four dot balls in a row against Stubbs at the end of his spell when the slog was on.
Neither were the USA easy beats with the bat. If anyone thought they would be, Steven Taylor immediately dispelled the idea with a crunching six in the grass bank at long on off Markram’s off spin.
They needed Taylor, the powerful opener from Florida, to take a bigger bite out of the target if they were to seriously challenge. Instead, he went for 24 from 14.
The other opener, Andries Gous, saw partners come and go at a steady pace as he made 80 off 47 balls – until Harmeet proved a capable ally for the sixth wicket.
Harmeet led a thrilling counter-attack. The left-hander contributed 38 from 22 balls to a partnership of 91 in seven overs with Gous.
It whittled down an impossible task to a just-about-doable 28 from the last 12 balls. Then, with an unlikely win in sight, he just failed to get enough leverage on a low full toss from Kagiso Rabada and was caught on the mid-wicket boundary by Stubbs.
Rabada was the outstanding bowler in the match, with three for 18 from four overs. It was his concession of just two runs, plus the wicket of Harmeet, off the penultimate over, which finally snubbed out the USA challenge.
