India’s Struggle for Semi-Final Spot: Women’s T20 World Cup Update and Key Match Scenarios

Dubai: Despite winning the second match of the Women’s Twenty20 World Cup, India will struggle to enter the semi-finals. Harmanpreet Kaur and team are currently fourth in Group A with two points from two games. New Zealand and Australia are in the top two positions with two points from each game. Pakistan (2) who have played two matches are in third place and Sri Lanka (0) are in fifth place. The semi-finals are only for the top two. India will get six points if they beat Lanka and Australia. This does not matter. The results of other games should also be checked.

Australia’s opponent today is New Zealand. The winners will be a step closer to the semi-finals. Apart from India, Australia also have to face Pakistan. Pakistan’s closest opponents are Australia and New Zealand. The Kiwis have Lanka coming up as opponents. With Sri Lanka’s chances closed, things should only get going for India if at least two of the other three teams end the fight at four points. There is also a chance of more than one team getting six points. In this case a net run rate will be considered. India’s current run rate is -1.217. Apart from the loss against New Zealand, the team has to pay a heavy price for the slow pace of the game against Pakistan.

Since they are way behind in run rate, it means that a win by a good margin in the next few games is inevitable. The run rate fell to -2.90 after the loss to New Zealand in the first match, but improved slightly after the win against Pakistan. India’s run rate would have been +0.084 if Pakistan had won in 11 overs. However, despite having the wickets in hand, India played defensively. Criticism has been leveled against this. Batting first, Pakistan were restricted to 105 runs. In reply, India reached the target with the loss of four wickets in 18.5 overs.