T20 World Cup 2024: How can India miss semi-final qualification?

India continued their dominant run at the T20 World Cup 2024, remaining unbeaten in the tournament. The Men-In-Blue have won six out of as many games they have played and have one foot in the semi-final. Moreover, they have an emphatic Net Run Rate of 2.425 in the Super Eight stage, which seems unassailable for other teams to contain from reaching the semi-finals. 

But cricket is a game of unpredictability and the Indian team is not safe from adversities. While India’s last game against Australia is unimportant for their playoff dreams, a loss would open doors for Afghanistan and Australia to dare to keep them out of contention. After Afghanistan’s win over Australia, the Aussies will have to beat India to stay in contention. On the other hand, Afghanistan will be hoping for a comprehensive victory against Bangladesh.

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For India to lose their semi-final spot, Australia have to beat India by a margin of 41 runs or more and the case becomes stronger if Afghanistan manage to beat Bangladesh by 83 runs or more. By doing so, both teams can overtake India’s NRR of 2.425 as they stand on an NRR of 0.223 and -0.650 respectively. It is worth noting that if the game between Australia and India clash is washed out, then India will sail through to the semis. 

No reserve day for second semifinal

The ongoing T20 World Cup 2024 has a peculiar scheduling of the matches as there is no reserve day for the second semi-final. The first semi-final at the Brian Lara Stadium on June 27 has a reserved day. However, the second semifinal to be held at Providence Stadium in Guyana has none. Although there is an option of levying an extra 250 minutes in case of rain to get the result of the second semi-final.