India's Last Expedient
Team India's T20 World Cup campaign has gotten off to the worst way possible start but can they somehow make it out of their group?
A 10 wicket loss against their arch rivals Pakistan followed by a 8 wicket defeat against New Zealand today has all but ended India's hopes of ending their ICC trophy drought. Given their strong squad of talented individuals it is very surprising to see them perform like this and collect 0 points from their opening 2 games.
This is how their group looks at the moment :
- 1. Pakistan - 6 points (+0.638 NRR)*
- 2. Afghanistan - 4 points (+3.097 NRR)*
- 3. New Zealand - 2 points (+0.765 NRR)**
- 4. Namibia - 2 points (-1.287 NRR)**
- 5. India - 0 points (-1.609 NRR)**
- 6. Scotland - 0 points (-3.562 NRR)**
- * 3 games played
- ** 2 games played
Qualifying for the semi finals from this position is going to be an uphill task and unfortunately it is not entirely in their own hands now. Pakistan are likely to finish at the top of the group with 10 points by beating both Scotland and Namibia. The maximum points India can accumulate is 6 which will most likely put them level on points with another team in second place. So the net run rate of Afghanistan, New Zealand and India becomes very crucial from here on. Here are a couple of scenarios via which India can make it through :
Scenario One
1. India win all of their remaining group games with a very high margin to have a superior NRR, a combined run margin of approximately 250+ runs
2. Afghanistan beat New Zealand by 50 runs
3. New Zealand beat Scotland and Namibia by 50+ runs
Scenario Two
1. India win all of their remaining group games with a very high margin to have a superior NRR, a combined run margin of approximately 250+ runs
2. New Zealand beat Afghanistan by a small margin
3. Either of Scotland or Namibia beat New Zealand
There is also a third scenario in which Pakistan lose by a big margin against both Scotland and Namibia but that seems very unlikely at this point, hence India need to cross their fingers and hope that either of the above two possibilities to come true.