The fairytale run was cut short by the “Big Boys”, but USA batter Corey Anderson says his assorted team is signing off from the T20 World Cup here with its head held high and “heaps of learnings.”
The USA was knocked out after losing its Super 8 stage matches to South Africa, the West Indies, and England. This was after a reasonably good run in the group league encounters, during which it beat Pakistan and gave India a scare.
“I mean, the sky’s the limit. The last few years, there’s always been whispers around what’s happening in America with cricket, and hopefully, in years to come as well, we can kind of grow that,”
Anderson, who is from New Zealand and even played 93 games for that country before shifting base to the USA, said following the team’s campaign-ending loss to England on Sunday.
“I mean there’s probably a lot of areas that we need to improve on. We are still an Associate Nation, growing and trying to get a bigger player pool. Making it through the Super 8s was a historic occasion for the USA,” he added.
Asked to explain the USA’s loss of momentum after a galvanising league run, Anderson said it was a case of ‘Big Boys’ raising their level when it mattered against a mostly novice team.
“The last couple of games have just been not quite there, but that’s what happens in the Super 8 competition. The bigger boys start to show up, and they’re kind of hitting their stride right at the back end of this competition,” he said.
“We don’t get to play against these big teams often or at all. So, anything that we can play against these guys is hugely valuable. It’s probably a little bit raw at the moment obviously, but yeah, there’s heaps of learnings out of that,” he added.
The 33-year-old Anderson is just one of the acquired talents for the USA. The team is made up of players of West Indian, Indian, and Pakistani origin players.
One of its top performers was Indian-origin pacer Saurabh Netravalkar, a full-time software engineer with Oracle..
Anderson said there is understandable disappointment in the camp right now, but there is also a feeling of accomplishment.
“They’re disappointed. They’re hurt. I’m hurt. Your pride’s always on the line when you’re playing these games, and you never want to lose badly or have performances like that,” he said, referring to the 10-wicket loss to England.
“But again, it’s looking at the bigger picture of it, too. If we’re a team and we first started and we’re beginning to be disappointed about how we play against these big teams and knowing that we can do better, that’s a great sign because it means we can give more,” he explained.
Anderson did not play any significant role during the campaign, and he acknowledged that it hurt the team as he was among the most experienced players in the line-up.
“My performance has been lacklustre for what I expected myself. I think as a team, we did a fantastic job of getting to where we were, and we had different guys stepping up at different times.
“Unfortunately, I couldn’t chime in and help when the wheels were falling off a little bit. I needed to play better than what I did, and there were probably opportunities that I missed out on,” he said
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