Cricket is a curiosity in the United States of America.
Painting with a wide-brush, you could say the vast majority of American sports fans know what cricket looks like, but have no idea how it works.
But for a brief moment on Thursday, June 6, the U.S. was a cricket country.
That’s because the national team, which is largely made up of part-timers who have 9-to-5 jobs, upset Pakistan at the T20 World Cup in Dallas.
The bookies had the United States as +700 underdogs and even that seemed a little short of what their true expectations were coming into the match and the tournament at large.
Pakistan has a reputation for coming up short in big moments, but the Men in Green are one of the heavyweights in this field and were supposed to advance out of Group A with ease.
America’s upset not only shook up the landscape of the tournament, but perhaps it brought a swath of new fans into the sport. Time will tell there.
What we do know is that the farther the Yanks progress in this tournament, the better chance that the public sticks around the bandwagon.
The more exposure to the sport, the more opportunities for fans to learn the rules and take that crucial first step into becoming a fan.
What would fast track all of that would be if the Americans can one-up their win over Pakistan and do the unthinkable by defeating tournament-favorites India on Wednesday at Nassau County International Cricket Stadium on Long Island.
A win over India would not come close to matching the social and cultural impact that came on the heels of ‘The Miracle on Ice” back in 1980 (a huge part of the reason is because the cricket will be on Willow, a channel that very few Americans are even aware of), but according to the bookies it would roughly be on the same level.
Per research done by the Action Network’s Steve Petrella, the Americans would have been roughly a +650 underdog against the Soviet Union in Lake Placid.
That’s shorter than the +810 odds being dished out on USA Cricket at the time of writing — though the USA-USSR projection was based on a three-way moneyline — which tells you that this would be an upset for the ages.
Though it is very unlikely the Americans are able to hang with the Men in Blue, there are some signals that suggest this could be a trickier matchup than the odds suggest.
The most obvious is that India just struggled to beat Pakistan on Sunday. The word ‘choke’ may get tossed around in sports too often these days, but there’s no other word to describe the performance from Pakistan against their biggest rivals.
Only needing 120 runs to win, the Men in Green were in great position until a collapse in the back half of their innings. They wilted against India like they always do.
On most days, that performance by India gets punished with a loss. The American players will have taken notice that the team they beat, should have got the better of India.
You’d imagine that India will be sharper than they were on Sunday, but the pitch (or wicket) has been absolute chaos in New York.
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An unpredictable wicket is a field-leveler because runs will be hard to come by. That’s a massive boost for the Americans, who would really struggle to keep up with India’s batters if all things are equal.
The flipside is that the Indian bowling attack, led by the imperious Jasprit Bumrah, will be even tougher to touch up on this kind of pitch. Especially since the Americans haven’t played on it yet.
Given the situation, timing and location, an American win over India in New York on Wednesday would be one of the biggest results in the history of cricket.
It would open a wormhole in the sport. Though the odds suggest it is unlikely, they also tell us it is not impossible.
