T20 World Cup: Stuart Law admits ‘penalty runs didn’t affect’ USA’s defeat to India

New York, June 13 (IANS) USA head coach Stuart Law said he wouldn’t blame his team’s defeat to India in the men’s T20 World Cup Group A match over the five-run penalty they were penalised for not starting their overs in time. Law also admitted that players should have responded earlier to the previous warnings they got.After restricting USA to 110/8, a nervy India chased the target in 18.2 overs, thanks to an unbeaten fifty from Suryakumar Yadav. But ahead of the start of the 16th over of their chase, India needed 35 runs to win. With USA being imposed the five-run penalty under the stop-clock rules, the equation was reduced to 30 runs needed off 30 balls.”Players know the rule, but it’s something that if you haven’t played with it for a long time, it’s very difficult to have it embedded in your brain. So, the information coming from the umpires was, they were given two clear warnings, then it’s up to the players to respond. We didn’t respond fast enough, we didn’t do it well enough, and that’s something we can address.””I don’t think it affected the outcome of the game. Five runs wasn’t going to affect the outcome of the game so I don’t think it rattled (the players). No, I thought we stuck to our guns, we fought hard, we fought to the death. I thought we showed some fantastic character against one of the best teams in the world,” said Law in the post-match press conference.He further said it wasn’t something which took the USA team by surprise. “We had a few warnings in earlier games, and it’s something we do talk about to get through faster between the overs. It’s just one thing that we can improve on. I think that we’re only a fledgling team. There’s plenty to learn.”“There’s not just the