Pakistan beat New Zealand by 21 runs in the rain-hit World Cup match, played in Bangalore, on Saturday while on the same day, Australia carried on to their astonishing form and defeated England by 33 runs in Ahmedabad.
The win strengthened Australia’s position on the World Cup points table as they now sit at the third position with a decent 0.924 net run rate (NRR).
ICC World Cup 2023 points table
India and South Africa have now already qualified for the World Cup semi-final thanks to their dominating and all-round performances in the mega event.
Australia now have one step in the semi-final as with 10 points already, the Aussies now only need one win in their last two matches — Afghanistan and Bangladesh — to cement their place in the knockout stage.
After Australia, Afghanistan is the only team that has control on their destiny as with eight points from seven matches, they sit in sixth position. But with two wins in their next two games, which are not easy by any means, Hashmatullah Shahidi’s men can create history by qualifying for the World Cup semi-final for the first time in their history.
On the other hand, New Zealand can just beat Sri Lanka in their final round game by a decent NRR and qualify for the Super Four of the tournament.
Meanwhile, of all the teams who can still qualify for the knockout stage, Pakistan’s path is the most difficult one, something that is not entirely in their hands.
As much as Pakistan need to beat England on November 11 in Kolkata and pray that Sri Lanka do their job against the Black Caps in Bengaluru on November 9, the Men in Green need Afghanistan to lose one of their remaining two matches — against Australia and South Africa — or both (preferably) because the Afghans have same points (8) as Babar Azam’s men despite playing one less match.
