India lost to New Zealand by 8 wickets on Sunday as their chances of making it to the playoffs of 2021 T20 world cup look bleak. India suffered a hammering by Pakistan by 10 wickets on last Sunday and with this loss to New Zealand, a chance to qualify for the play-offs looks more than impossible.
Indian batting has looked horribly poor in the two outings as losing early wickets never allowed India to cling back into the game. In the game against Pakistan, Virat Kohli looked the lone warrior and India was short of runs to defend against Pakistan. A dejected India team was up against New Zealand whom they have never beaten in a T20 world cup and their last win against them in an ICC tournament came way back in 2003.
In pursuit to change history, pressure was on the strong Indian batting line up but everybody failed to fire as they looked an ordinary batting side and scoring boundaries was becoming a herculean task for the men in blue. They didn’t have enough runs on the board to defend but still managed to take two wickets to give a 8 wickets win to New Zealand as the Kiwi men look strong to finish in the last 4 of the tournament.
Now as an Indian fan, people are already calculating on how can India still make it to the play-offs and we have did the hard work for you.
Explanation
India’s poor net run rate of -1.609 means they will either have to finish points clear of their rivals for qualification or have to eke out big wins in the last few games left for them. Afghanistan are placed second in the table with a net run rate of +3.097 NRR and India need to hammer them with a long margin of victory when they face them on 3rd November 2021. India also have to hope that Afghanistan just get a win against New Zealand. After this, the men in blue should look forward to defeat Namibia and Scotland with a bigger margin to qualify.
Summary
-India to beat Afghanistan, Scotland and Namibia by 50+, 100 and 100+ runs respectively.
-Afghanistan beat New Zealand
Hoping for an upset- The best chance
India will need to win their matches big and defeat Afghanistan by a big margin and hope the Afghan men beat New Zealand and the Kiwi team also lose to Namibia or Scotland, which can be termed as the biggest upset. Afghanistan can tame New Zealand with their spin attack and this is the only hope India has to progress. Miracles do happen sometimes, but India need to tick all the boxes and wait for the others to tick boxes for them too in order to progress.
