U.S. Scores Historic Cricket Win, but Only Pakistan Notices

Between sips of milk tea at a cafe in the Pakistani city of Karachi on Friday morning, Jaffer Ahmed dissected the national cricket team’s surprise loss to the United States.

“This is unbelievable and embarrassing,” Ahmed, 26, said as he took bites of bread and lamented the defeat with friends. “How can we, with our cricketing history, lose to a country that doesn’t even have cricket in its DNA?”

Losing to the United States on Thursday in the Men’s T20 World Cup was a humiliation in Pakistan, where cricket is the most popular sport and part of the national identity. The national team won the World Cup in 1992, led by Imran Khan, who later rode his sports fame to a political career that included becoming prime minister.

Many Americans were oblivious to the magnitude of their victory in Dallas. But it was felt acutely in the losing side’s cricket-mad nation. As fans woke up to the news, they began trying to digest what had happened, watching highlights from the match in the streets.

“We should be teaching the U.S.A.,” said Muhammad Sagheer, 32, “not losing to them.”

Fans were infuriated by their team’s poor showing. The players dropped catches and missed bats, handing crucial opportunities to the Americans, said Feroz Shah, 30, who called Pakistan’s game a disaster.

Pakistan had already been struggling, in part because recent leadership shake-ups in the team and on the national cricket board have hurt morale, Aatif Nawaz, a British-Pakistani cricket commentator, said in a video.