T20 World Cup scenario: What Afghanistan’s win over Australia means for India’s semi-final hopes

Afghanistan surprised Australia for the first time in its history, opening the door to the semi-finals wide open.

Sahil Bakshi

Updated: Jun 23, 2024 at 10:51 AM IST

reading time: 2 minutes

Afghanistan revived their semi-final hopes with victory over Australia© Agence France-Presse

The Afghanistan cricket team registered their first ever win against Australia, in any format of the game, beating the former champions by 21 runs in the Super 8 round of the 2024 T20 World Cup. Generally considered a team that featured world-class bowlers, the fast bowling unit was It was she who led Afghanistan to victory this time, with Gulbuddin Naib taking 4 wickets, resulting in a man of the match display. While Afghanistan kept their semi-final hopes alive with their victory, the result gave the Super 8 group a major improvement.

to Afghanistan (-0.650), a win over Bangladesh is a must if they want to qualify for the semi-finals. The loss may also be sufficient if the margin of defeat for the Afghans is small. But in this scenario, India would need to beat Australia by a wide margin to give Afghanistan the edge on a net run rate basis.

to BangladeshIt’s an unrealistic picture because they haven’t won a single game in Super 8s. The Bengal Tigers’ net run rate is -2.489. Not only do they need to beat Afghanistan by a big margin in the next match, but they will also hope that India will also beat Australia by a big margin. So the situation is practically impossible.

Topics mentioned in this article