NRR Calculations: Here’s how South Africa can reach the semi-finals in T20 World Cup 2021

South Africa have a stern task at hand as they take on England in their last league-stage game of the T20 World Cup 2021. It’s a sort of virtual knock-out game for the Proteas but just a win won’t be enough for them to make a place in the semi-finals. With three wins in four games, the Temba Bavuma-led side is third in the Group 1 team standings.

While England, with four wins in as many games, are leading the table, Australia are holding the second spot, having won four of their five league-stage games. Hence, if South Africa emerges victorious in their last league-stage fixture, they would equal Australia and Three Lions in terms of the number of points. In that case, the NRR will come into play.

As the Ashes rivals are piping South Africa in this aspect, the Proteas side would need to win handsomely to go through. Unfortunately for them, the coin landed in England’s favour, and Eoin Morgan unsurprisingly elected to bowl at the Sharjah Cricket Stadium. This means South Africa need to win by a certain margin to through.

Meanwhile, let’s look at how India can still qualify for T20 World Cup 2021 semi-final:

While South Africa’s current NRR is +0.742, they are required to go past Australia’s +1.216. In these cases, teams usually prefer to chase. In this case, however, the Proteas side was put in to bat as they lost the toss. South Africa now need to defend around 60 percent of their target to go past Australia’s NRR.

The African side approximately needs to win the contest by at least 62 runs. Hence, if they score 150, they will have to restrict England to 88. With the Three Lions possessing a daunting batting line-up, South Africa need to defy the odds to go through. Hence, they must aim for nothing less than 200.

It has to be noted that, there’s a possibility of England getting knocked out of the semi-final. The Three Lions, in case, lose by 93 runs or more, they will get eliminated. In such a scenario, Australia and South Africa would go through. Hence, it would be interesting to see how this pans out.