India faces an uphill task of making a third successive T20 World Cup semifinal at the ongoing edition of the tournament in the UAE.
Virat Kohli’s men lost both their opening matches in Group 2 of the Super 12 stage against Pakistan (10 wickets) and New Zealand (by 8 wickets) which puts them at the risk of an early exit from the competition.
While India has lower-ranked opponents up next, it will need to win all its remaining matches and expect other results to go in its favour.
The Men in Blue will need to beat Afghanistan, which is placed second on the table with a net run-rate (NRR) of (+3.097), Scotland and Namibia by big margins to improve its own NRR.
Pakistan is likely to win its remaining matches against Scotland and Namibia to finish top of the table.
For India to stand a slim chance, New Zealand must beat Afghanistan but not by a big margin, and in the unlikeliest of scenarios, one of Namibia and Scotland need to pull off an upset against the Kiwis.
Even if all these results go India’s way, then New Zealand and India will finish with six points each. Thereby it would all come down to the NRR to decide the second semifinalist. (SportsStar)
