USA cricketer Rusty Theron has accused Pakistan fast bowler Haris Rauf of ‘ball tampering’ during the USA vs Pakistan Match 11 of the T20 World Cup 2024 on Thursday, June 6. Notably, Pakistan requested a ball change during the second innings with USA on 94/1 after 12 overs. USA continued their momentum with captain Monank Patel taking in Shaheen Afridi for a four and a six in back-to-back deliveries in the over before Haris dismissed Andries Gous in the first ball of the next over. The delivery showed a hint of reverse swing as the good length ball struck the top of off stump.
Moments after the dismissal, Theron took to X, formerly known as Twitter, to bring to ICC's attention as he accused Haris of scratching the freshly-changed ball with his fingernail, which he reckoned, led to the reverse swing.He tweeted: “@ICC are we just going to pretend Pakistan aren't scratching the hell out of this freshly changed ball? Reversing the ball that's just been changed 2 overs ago? You can literally see Harris Rauf running his thumbnail over the ball at the top of his mark. @usacricket #PakvsUSA.”There has been no official statement from ICC on this matter yet.
USA managed to tie with Pakistan’s score of 159 in their allotted 20 overs. To decide the winner of the contest, the match shifted to super over where Jones and Harmeet Singh batted against Mohammad Amir. A couple of wides bowled by the left-arm seamer along with a few over throws and byes helped USA score 18 off the over.In reply, USA’s Saurabh Netravalkar managed to defend the score successfully with Pakistan only managing to score 13 runs in their super over. As a result, the USA stunned the 2009 champions of the tournament with a clinical victory. Pakistan will next face arch-rivals India on June 9 at the Nassau County International Cricket Stadium in New York.