India, Feb. 11 -- D iplomacy took a lighter turn in the Capital on Monday evening as guests gathered to welcome the new US Ambassador to India, Sergio Gor, at his residence. The evening, attended by Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal and External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar, celebrated the growing warmth in India-US ties. Just over a month into his posting, Gor said the engagement had begun at full pace: "We hit the ground running. The White House is paying attention to India, and thanks to the friendship between President Trump and PM Modi, we were able to get the trade deal across." The conversation soon shifted from policy to play, with cricket emerging as the surprise ice-breaker. Referring to the T20 cricket World Cup match between India and the USA on Saturday, Goyal said: "The US may not have won, but for a country that has taken up cricket only recently, the performance was fabulous." Goyal took the analogy further, drawing laughter from the room. "Sergio pointed out one very important factor - the US lost the match by 18%, and a very humble request I made to him as a suggestion that if only you (USA) had made the reciprocal tariff zero, you'd possibly have won the match," he said, referring to last week's announcement that US will cut reciprocal tariffs on India to 18% from the current 25%. The evening was attended by several dignitaries and diplomats, including British High Commissioner Lindy Cameron. htc...