India record big win but could get knocked out of semis

Rex Clementine in Abu Dhabi

India recorded a huge 66 run win in their T-20 World Cup fixture against Afghanistan here in Abu Dhabi yesterday but despite that impressive performance their fate of qualifying to the semi-finals is beyond them.

The former champions had made a disastrous start to the campaign losing to Pakistan by ten wickets and to New Zealand by eight wickets and yesterday they managed to get first points in the tournament and more importantly improve their Net Run Rate.

India’s remaining fixtures are against Scotland and Namibia and they should win both games handsomely and further improve their Net Run Rate. However, that will not be sufficient to go through.

Pakistan with eight points in the bag and one game remaining are already through and the battle now will be between New Zealand and India to secure the last spot.

New Zealand will play Namibia on Friday and should win that and will have six points. India will now hope that New Zealand lose their last group game to Afghanistan on Sunday so that points will be tied between three teams (Afghanistan, India and New Zealand) so that they can go through on Net Run Rate.

However, the odds now are heavily against India as their fate is in others’ hands.

India came out all guns blazing to post the highest total in the competition. They just lost two wickets in scoring 210 runs as Rohit Sharma (74) and K.L. Rahul (69) shared 140 runs for the first wicket. Rishab Pant (27) and Hardik Pandya (35) then threw caution to the wind smashing 62 off 26 deliveries.

Afghanistan could manage only 144 in their reply and with the game beyond their reach they were more content at ensuring they stayed ahead of India in the Net Run Rate.