Thanks to Mumbai lad Saurabh Netravalkar, USA cricket fans were seen gaga over their team's shock T20 win over Pakistan in New York on Thursday -- one of the biggest upsets in sport history. The US -- a non-Test nation and a greenhorn-- had trounced Canada in its opening game, but thrashing 2022 runner-up Pakistan counts as historic in a country that hardly understands the rules of the game.
Left-arm fast bowler Saurabh had to restrain Pakistan from scoring 19 runs in the Super Over. Having earlier bowled brilliantly and grabbed 2-18 off his four overs, he conceded only 13 runs in the super over and claimed the prized wicket of skipper Babar Azam, to deny the 2022 finalists a victory.
By day, Saurabh, 32, is a soft spoken software engineer at Oracle, in New York, but on the cricket field, he is Whistling Death. His talents go far beyond, having developed his own cricket app, and he is adept at playing the ukulele with aplomb, and is also a decent singer.
There was no looking back. He moved relentlessly forward, and went on to don the Mumbai colours in different age groups and made his debut in the Ranji Trophy against Karnataka. He had excelled both in academics and sports.
Saurabh Netravalkar forged bowling partnerships with Jaydev Unadkat and Sandeep Sharma:
The southpaw's talent shone on the international stage, where he faced cricketing stalwarts like Joe Root, Jos Buttler, and Ben Stokes during the U-19 World Cup in New Zealand, sharing the dressing room with K L Rahul and Mayank Agarwal. His partnership with fellow seamer Jaydev Unadkat and Punjab's Sandeep Sharma underscored his exceptional talent and dedication to the sport.
Saurabh's journey took him from Mumbai's competitive cricket scene to academic pursuits, culminating in an engineering degree from Sardar Patel Engineering College (Computer Science) and a prestigious scholarship for an MS degree at Cornell University.
