As the group stage of the Women’s T20 World Cup 2024 draws to a close, the quality of cricket matches is increasing. At this stage of the competition, India’s Women find themselves in a challenging but hopeful situation.
Notably, the Women in Blue have recovered from a rocky start to qualify for the semi-finals. The Women in Blue’s opening match against New Zealand ended in a 58-run loss, which significantly hurt their net run rate (NRR). But the team recovered, winning big against Pakistan and defeating Sri Lanka by 82 runs, which greatly improved their NRR from -1.217 to +0.576.
It will be very important for them to play Australia on Sunday at the Sharjah Cricket Stadium. The Harmanpreet Kaur-led team would have the best chance to advance if they defeated the reigning champions, possibly earning six points and a position in the knockout stages.
Australian and Indian women will square off in Sharjah.
Qualification circumstances are challenging, though. Even if India wins, if New Zealand wins its remaining games, they can end up in a three-way tie with Australia and New Zealand. The determining factor in this scenario would be NRR, where Australia presently has a lead at +2.78. It’s interesting to note that India’s chances of qualifying don’t depend only on beating Australia.
As long as there is little harm done to their NRR, they might be able to survive even a close loss. A four-way tie on four points between India, New Zealand, Pakistan, and Australia might result from New Zealand losing at least one of their final two games. India’s higher NRR (at +0.576) than that of Pakistan (+0.555) and New Zealand (-0.050) may be significant in that case.
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The Kiwis still have two games left, though, so they can raise their net rating. The best possible result for India would be a victory over Australia and defeats for Pakistan and New Zealand in the remaining games. By doing this, India would qualify only on the basis of its points, doing away with the NRR requirement.
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