In the current ICC T20 World Cup 2024 taking place at Grand Prairie Stadium in Dallas, Saurabh Netravalkar, a former cricket player from Mumbai who is now a software engineer, assisted the United States of America (USA) in achieving a historic victory over Pakistan.
Netravalkar solidified his status as a hero for the USA cricket team with his outstanding bowling performance in both the Super Over and the main match, demonstrating his capacity to deliver under duress.
In Mumbai, Netravalkar played cricket for India in the 2010 U19 World Cup, competing against players such as Mayank Agarwal and KL Rahul. In 2013, he participated in a Mumbai team Ranji Trophy match against Karnataka.
But because there weren’t many chances in Indian cricket, the left-arm bowler made the decision to go to college in the US and enrol at Cornell University to study computer science.
For the USA, Saurabh Netravalkar becomes Super Over hero
In addition to pursuing his love of cricket, he had a prosperous career as a software engineer and is now employed at Oracle as a Principal Engineer. He was picked to play for the USA cricket team in 2018, and he was named captain in February 2019. He made cricket history by becoming the first bowler to take five wickets for the United States in the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup 2022 Global Qualifier B, which was played in Zimbabwe.
Netravalkar held Pakistan to 159/7 in his four overs during the USA vs. PAK match, finishing with outstanding figures of 2/18. Among the important victims he took out were Iftikhar Ahmed and Muhammad Rizwan. After the game finished in a draw, Netravalkar was assigned to bowl the Super Over.
He remained composed and stopped the Men in Green from scoring runs, saving eighteen. He once again removed Ahmed from the game and gave the USA a historic triumph in the Super Over. With four points after this victory, the US now tops Group A’s standings. They’ll play their next match on June 12 in New York against India.