T20 World Cup results: India beat USA in New York to qualify for Super 8s

Had the USA managed to get themselves to a score in the region of 130 this might have been an even trickier challenge for their opponents.

India were again indebted to their bowling attack.

Arshdeep trapped USA opener Shayan Jahangir lbw with a peach of a delivery from the first ball of the match before he drew Andries Gous into playing a daft shot.

Aaron Jones has been the USA’s batting star in this tournament, his powerful strokeplay pivotal in victories over Canada and Pakistan.

Both those games were played in Texas on a pitch with considerably more carry and smaller boundaries.

Inevitably Jones could not resist taking on the short ball and Mohammed Siraj suckered him into a top-edging one down to fine leg for 11.

The United States might have capitulated at the point but Nitish Kumar brought some momentum to the middle overs.

An 88-metre six off Hardik was followed up by a gorgeous straight drive a couple of balls before he too perished in the deep, caught spectacularly by Siraj.

The barrel-chested Corey Anderson briefly picked up the baton and skilfully managed to extract runs from Jasprit Bumrah, no easy task, to add some valuable lower-order runs .

USA’s bowling attack did their utmost to keep India in check but probably did not have sufficient runs on the board to play with.

However, they were also left to rue the decision to award India five penalty runs in the 15th over of the chase after the US took more than a minute between overs on three occasions.

Progress to the Super 8s, and a chance for the USA to continue their impressive tournament, is still very much in their hands, though.