T20 cricket rarely follows a script, and defending champions India’s match against the United States at the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup 2026 proved that once again.

India are favorites for the World Cup due to their form, experience and all-round depth in their squad. Before the game, the talk was not whether India would win but how many runs they would score. However, things did not develop as expected, and the United States promptly reminded the host.

The US put up a stunning bowling performance to keep India reeling at 46/4 in the powerplay. India had done well against New Zealand just a few days ago and were expected to do the same against the United States. However, the Men in Blue were dealt a huge blow as the Americans executed their plan brilliantly on the power play and will now take advantage of their opportunity.

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India is in big trouble against the US:

The Americans won the toss and elected to bowl first, a call that their bowlers quickly justified. Saurabh Netravalkar launched the attack and troubled Ishan Kishan from the start, despite India’s opening six in the first over.

Ali Khan got the United States off to a dream start by dismissing the dangerous Abhishek Sharma off the second ball of the second over. Tilak Varma then hit Netravalkar with a six and two fours in the third over to provide some early momentum to the match.

Tilak and Ishan steadied things before Shadli van Schalkwijk took as many as three wickets in the final powerplay to give his team the upper hand. After the game started, Kishan was dismissed on the second ball.

Two balls later, Van Schalkewijk sent back Tilak and then outsmarted Shivam Dube with a slower ball in the last ball. With the score at 46/4 at the end of the powerplay, India will be hoping the middle-order batsmen can guide them to a challenging score.

At the time of writing, India are 55/4 in the 10th over with captain Suryakumar Yadav and Rinku Singh in the middle.