Against the odds, the USA cricket team has captured hearts and minds with historic run at Men’s T20 Cricket World Cup

CNN —

One is a software engineer. Another was a mobile phone sales representative, while a third only recently quit his job as a biomedical engineer.

These are some of the players that are part of the USA men’s cricket team, which pulled off one of the greatest shocks in the sport’s long history in beating Pakistan at the T20 World Cup, while also giving powerhouse India a bit of a fright in the group stage.

Saurabh Netravalkar (left) bowled the decisive Super Over to help the USA to its famous victory over Pakistan at the Men's T20 Cricket World Cup.

And now, it will be playing in the next round of the tournament having qualified for the Super 8 stage of the T20 World Cup after its game against Ireland on Friday was abandoned.

A momentous day

Born and raised in Mumbai, India, USA bowler Saurabh Netravalkar began playing cricket from an early age. Such was the promise he showed that he was selected for India’s team for the Under-19 World Cup in 2010, finishing the tournament as the country’s leading wicket taker.

After juggling playing the sport with other commitments, Netravalkar chose to focus on cricket in an attempt to make it to the full India national team.

But, as the dream to represent India appeared to be fading away, Netravalkar moved to Cornell University in New York to continue his studies in computer science, though he continued to play cricket.

In 2016, he got a job at technology company Orcale in San Francisco where he has worked ever since.

While he was playing at weekends for club teams, Netravalkar was still a long way from international competition; not least because the International Cricket Council’s (ICC) rules at the time wouldn’t have qualified him for the USA national team.

“I was on a