Coming against posibly the heaviest favourites for any global cricket tournament, USA came close to pulling off the upset of all upsets on the opening day of the T20 World Cup against co-hosts India. And but for India's captain being dropped on 15, they probably would have done it.

Eyebrows were raised when USA captain Monank Patel asked the home side to bat first when we won the toss, with many on the ground expecting India to rack up a huge total.

But Patel evidently had faith in his opening bowlers, and that faith was rewarded when Ali Khan caught from his first ball in the second over, and again when Shadley van Schalkwyk took three wickets in the sixth over to leave the hosts reeling on 46-4.

At the halfway point of their innings, India were firmly on the backfoot on 63-4. But the turning point came from the last ball of that tenth over when Suryakumar Yadav chipped the ball back towards the bowler who couldn't hold on to the low return catch.

SKY survives a caught and bowled chance on 15

That drop proved costly as Yadav went on to score an unbeaten 84 from 49 balls, over half of India's total of 161-9.

USA would still have fancied their chances at this point, but when the top three were all removed within the first four overs of their chase, India finally began to get on top of their less experienced opponents.

Knocks of 34 by Milind Kumar and twin 37s from Sanjay Kirshnamurthi and Shubham Ranjane kept the USA in with a sniff of victory, but none of them could go on to make a big score like SKY did for India, and they were kept to 132-8, losing by 29 runs.

A closer game than many were expecting beforehand, and one that the Amercians will count themselves unlucky not to win. They have shown that India are vulnerable and will be looking to pull of a repeat of their 2024 World Cup win over Pakistan when they take them on in Sri Lanka on Tuesday. India's next game is on Thursday against Namibia.