US bowler raises ball-tampering charges on Haris Rauf

Veteran US cricketer Rusty Theron has accused Pakistan pacer Haris Rauf of ball tampering.

Taking to X, formerly known as Twitter, the US cricketer opined that Haris Rauf was trying to tamper with the ball using his finger nail.

@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 thumb nail over the ball at the top of his mark. @usacricket #PakvsUSA

— Rusty Theron (@RustyTheron) June 6, 2024

Earlier, Pakistan suffered a heartbreaking defat against the co-host USA in their opening match of the T20 World Cup in a thrilling Super Over finish in Dallas on Thursday.

Both teams made 159 in their regulation 20 overs, with non-Test nation the United States then setting Pakistan 19 to win in the Super Over.

US pace bowler Saurabh Netravalkar held his nerve as Pakistan made 13-1 in reply.

Pakistan pacer Mohammad Amir was handed the ball to bowl the Super Over. He bowled a couple of wides and sloppy fielding helped USA reach 18. Interestingly, he only conceded a single boundary.

The match was dominated by the home side throughout the day. However, Pakistan managed to fight back in the death over to make the tie interesting.

The USA needed 21 runs from 12 balls, Amir bowled a superb over and just conceded six runs, leaving 15 runs to be defended in the last over.

Haris Rauf bowled three excellent deliveries in the block hole and just conceded three runs in the start. The tables turned when he miscued a Yorker, with Aaron Jones at the strike. The batter deposited over the mid-wicket for a six to bring the deficit down to six from the last two deliveries.

Ruaf again hit the block hole and conceded a runs, leaving five were required off one and then Nitish Kumar scored a four to level the scores.

For Pakistan, Amir, Naseem Shah and Haris managed to bag one each.

Earlier, USA were on the money with ball and exceptionally well in the field as they restricted Pakistan to 159-7 from their 20 overs.

They removed Pakistani top-order — Mohammad Rizwan, Usman Khan and Fakhar Zaman — back to the pavilion for just 26 runs on the scoreboard.

However, skipper Babar Azam and Shadab Khan staged Pakistan comeback with a 72-run partnership.

Shadab walked back to the pavilion after scoring 40 runs on 25 balls, which triggered another collapse. Out of form Azam Khan disappointed again with a golden duck.

Babar Azam fell after scoring 44 off 43. Iftikhar Ahmed departed after scoring 18 runs.

Shaheen Afridi (23 off 16 balls) provided crucial runs to Pakistan down the order and helped them conclude their innings at 159-7 in the allocated overs.