USA vs. India, Cricket's T20 World Cup and perhaps a starting point for growth of the sport

Rahul Shah was wearing a jersey with an Indian flag on the front and an American flag on the back when he arrived in Eisenhower Park on Wednesday morning.

This immediately signaled something about the final event of the T20 World Cup’s eight-match stay on Long Island this month: India vs. Pakistan, it was not.

That much-anticipated showdown on Sunday was the marquee contest at the 34,000-seat temporary stadium built for the World Cup – a clash between two world cricket powers with a tense geopolitical history.

Not so for India vs. USA, for which many Indian-Americans was a chance to root for the old country while celebrating how far the sport has come here.

“We found this [shirt] and we were like, ‘Perfect!’” said Shah, who is from New Jersey. “I’m Indian-American, so I have both. I don’t care who wins, just want a good match.”

It was, to the surprise of the cricket world.

India won, by seven wickets, as expected, to qualify for the Super 8 phase. But after a terrible start, Team USA rallied to make a match of it and can reach the final eight itself with a victory over Ireland in Lauderhill, Florida, on Friday.

The U.S. had India on the ropes before a late collapse that included a crushing five-run penalty for thrice exceeding the permitted time between overs.

“It’s something we need to address,” coach Stuart Law said of the mess-up.

Fans of India were in the majority, as they were for Sunday’s victory over Pakistan. But American fans were many and loud, too, in the crowd of 31,129, for Team USA’s only Eisenhower Park appearance.

And as with Shah, sometimes it was complicated. Many fans wore India jerseys and carried American flags – and cheered for both teams’ good plays, at least until things got dicey for the favorites.

Cricket has a long way to go to match the rise of soccer in the U.S. over the past several decades, but soccer, too, used to seem foreign and indecipherable.

Part of the point of the United States co-hosting this tournament with the West Indies was to boost the sport here.

There certainly is momentum, including the inclusion of cricket for the 2028 Olympics in Los Angeles.

Club and school teams are sprouting across the country.

On Tuesday, the YES Network announced that it would carry seven games of the defending Major League Cricket champion MI New York next month.

“This is probably going to open it up way more,” Shah said of the World Cup. “I hope for it. I see high schools trying to get cricket teams. I see cricket clubs.”

Nassau County executive Bruce Blakeman said during the India-Pakistan match that he hopes the region can become a hotbed of the sport.

“This has been a great first step, and we’re starting to hear from people who want to invest in cricket here in Nassau County,” he said. “The way things have gone here this last couple of weeks, I think cricket has found a home.”

One of its homes will be the field on which the World Cup was contested, even though the stadium around it will be dismantled.

“[The World Cup] is great for expansion and recognition, to bring it to a whole new platform,” Gurteg Singh, a United States fan from New Jersey, said before the match. “It means a lot. It’s encouraging.”

Team USA got the cricket world’s attention in an earlier group stage match when it stunned Pakistan near Dallas last week. Then it gave India a scare.

“We stuck to our guns, we fought hard, we fought to the death,” Law said. “I thought we showed some fantastic character against one of the best teams in the world.”

The matches on Long Island were consistently low-scoring, owing to problems with the pitch that were a source of frustration for batters and a boost for bowlers.

Law called that a “shame” despite the best efforts of the grounds crew, because it denied fans high-scoring games. But he said it did lead to exciting, close contests.

“That also will intrigue some of the minds here in America that cricket’s not just about smashing fours and sixes,” Law said. “It’s also about technical adjustments and good cricket play.”

When it was over, India fans left happy, U.S. fans left entertained, and the party moved on to Florida, where Team USA will try to keep its fantasy run alive.

Vinay Nagalingaiah, an India fan from Columbus, Ohio, said, “U.S. cricket is growing big time. I see a lot of kids and clubs all across the country grooming [players]. So I hope the U.S. is going to be a competitive team, like any other country.”

By Neil Best

neil.best@newsday.com@sportswatch

Neil Best first worked at Newsday in 1982, returned in 1985 after a detour to Alaska and has been here since, specializing in high schools, college basketball, the NFL and most recently sports media and business.