The first leg of the T20 World Cup 2024 league games have thrown up some upsets and a few rain-hit spoilers, leaving a few of the favourites from each group with plenty to do to qualify for the Super 8 stage. So far, five teams — Australia, India, South Africa, West Indies and Afghanistan — have already qualified for the Super 8 stage. Meanwhile, former champions – England and Pakistan – aren’t enjoying the best of tournaments as they need a lot of other results to go their way apart from winning their games to qualify for the Super 8 stage.
Rain is likely to play its part with three spots up for grabs. With the league games now at a crucial juncture as far as progressing to the next stage goes, let’s have a look at the Super 8 qualification scenarios in each group.
Group A
With six points in hand, India have entered the next round ahead of their final league game against Canada on Saturday.
USA need to avoid a defeat in their final game against Ireland if they want to join India in the next round from Group A.
Despite beating Canada, Pakistan are still at the mercy of other results. They need Ireland to beat USA and make sure that they beat the former in their final league game on Sunday.
Canada needs to win their next game and hope for both USA and Pakistan to lose their final games with a NRR lesser than them.
Despite their poor NRR, Ireland have an outside chance of making it to the playoffs. They need to win both of their remaining games by hefty margins to ensure that their NRR is better than them.
Group B
Australia have already qualified for the Super 8 stage with three wins in as many matches.
England need to win their remaining match and hope Australia do them a favour by beating Scotland.
Avoiding a defeat against Australia will ensure Scotland’s place in the Super 8, even if England win their final group game.
Scotland are currently second with five points while England are third with three. However, the defending champions have a better net run rate than the Scots.
Namibia and Oman are eliminated.
Group C
Afghanistan will join West Indies in Super 8 from Group C, and currently top Group C with six points, only ahead of the tournament co-hosts on net run rate.
New Zealand, Uganda and Papua New Guinea are eliminated.
Group D
The Aiden Markram-led South Africa have already qualified for the Super 8 fixtures. Sri Lanka, on the other hand, have crashed out of the tournament earlier than expected.
Bangladesh, Nepal and the Netherlands are all in contention to grab the final Super 8s slot from Group D.
Bangladesh need a win in their final game against Nepal to secure their passage. They are currently second with five points from three matches.
Despite the loss to Bangladesh, the Dutch can still make it to the next round. They need to win their final game Sri Lanka by a big margin, and hope Nepal lose one of their games and beat Bangladesh too.
Nepal need to win both their remaining games and also hope the Netherlands to the Proteas.
(With SI Inputs)
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