\n<\/p>\n
Between sips of milk tea at a cafe in the Pakistani city of Karachi on Friday morning, Jaffer Ahmed dissected the national cricket team\u2019s surprise loss to the United States.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is unbelievable and embarrassing,\u201d Ahmed, 26, said as he took bites of bread and lamented the defeat with friends. \u201cHow can we, with our cricketing history, lose to a country that doesn\u2019t even have cricket in its DNA?\u201d<\/p>\n
Losing to the United States on Thursday in the Men\u2019s T20 World Cup<\/a> was a humiliation in Pakistan, where cricket<\/a> is the most popular sport and part of the national identity. The national team won the World Cup in 1992, led by Imran Khan<\/a>, who later rode his sports fame to a political career that included becoming prime minister.<\/p>\n Many Americans were oblivious to the magnitude of their victory in Dallas. But it was felt acutely in the losing side\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n \u201cWe should be teaching the U.S.A.,\u201d said Muhammad Sagheer, 32, \u201cnot losing to them.\u201d<\/p>\n Fans were infuriated by their team\u2019s poor showing. The players dropped catches and missed bats, handing crucial opportunities to the Americans, said Feroz Shah, 30, who called Pakistan\u2019s game a disaster.<\/p>\n 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<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cA bitter pill to swallow for Pakistan fans who\u2019ve seldom seen darker times,\u201d he wrote on social media<\/a> after Thursday\u2019s game, calling it one of the biggest upsets in the sport\u2019s history.<\/p>\n The United States, which had never played in the World Cup, is a late bloomer on the international cricket stage. It ranks<\/a> 18th in the world. Pakistan ranks sixth. Thursday\u2019s win was the biggest yet for the U.S. team.<\/p>\n \u201cPakistan looked exhausted and helpless in the field,\u201d Waqar Younis, a former coach of Pakistan\u2019s national team, wrote on social media<\/a>. \u201cCongrats USA for a thumping victory.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n American interest in cricket is growing along with its South Asian diaspora<\/a>. Investors have poured over $1 billion<\/a> into expanding the sport nationwide. The domestic league played its first season last year and team owners include Microsoft\u2019s chief executive, Satya Nadella. In the World Cup, the United States stands a chance<\/a> of qualifying for the Super 8 round.<\/p>\n Some Americans celebrated their win over Pakistan on social media, many of them in awe that one of the star U.S. players, Saurabh Netravalkar<\/a>, has a day job as a senior engineer at Oracle.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s a big achievement, you know, beating Pakistan,\u201d Monank Patel, the current captain, said after the victory<\/a>. \u201cI\u2019m really proud of the boys.\u201d<\/p>\n Another concern reverberated throughout the cafe in Karachi where Ahmed was drinking tea with friends. Pakistan is about to face India, its greatest competitor<\/a>, on Sunday, in an event that will take over every television screen in both nations<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cIf we could not win against the U.S.A., how can we win against our archrival from India?\u201d Sagheer said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n