United States vs Pakistan Predictions & Betting tips - ICC Men's T20 World Cup

Prediction published on 04/06/2024, 04:38  by Devesh Jaganath | Modified on 05/06/2024 at 03:50

The 11th group stage match at the 2024 ICC T20 World Cup will see the United States taking on Pakistan on Thursday afternoon. The hosts currently lead Group A with two points, while the visitors will be playing their first match of the competiton. The US made the perfect start to their first home cricket World Cup, claiming an opening-match victory over neighbours Canada last week. Batting first, the Canadians set a very defendable target of 195, but the Americans responded in style, chasing down the total with seven wickets and 14 balls to spare. Aaron Jones put in a Man of the Match performance, scoring an incredible 94 runs in just 40 balls, while Andries Gous provided excellent support, adding 65 runs in 46 balls. While the bowling attack was less impressive, Harmeet Singh caught the eye with an economical 1/27 in his four overs. The US also beat Bangladesh 2-1 in a three-match series last month and hammered Canada 4-0 back in April. Still, they face a massive step up in the quality of opponents here and are unsurprisingly massive underdogs at the books. 

Meanwhile, Pakistan have come into the T20 World Cup under the radar with most onlookers giving them a very slim chance of winning the competition. They were beaten by England in their warm-up series last month and only narrowly overcame New Zealand 3-2 back in April. However, write off the Shaheens at your own peril as they consistently find a way to reach the latter stages of world tournaments. They won the World Cup back in 2009 and were finalists for a third time when they were beaten by the Three Lions in 2022. Key to Pakistan’s success will be the performance of their formidable top order that features skipper Babar Azam, Mohammad Rizwan and Fakhar Zaman. Rizwan and Azam are ranked third and fourth according to ICC T20 batsmen rankings, while Shaheen Afridi is quickly being recognized as one of the best pacemen in world cricket. Pakistan are heavily expected to join India in qualifying from this group and will want to set down a marker with a solid performance in this opening fixture.