Highlight
- Sri Lanka beat UAE in a do or die match on Tuesday
- First round 1 to them. Namibia was defeated in the opening match of
- Group leader Netherlands awaits Sri Lanka on Thursday
The T20 World Cup Round 1 has reached the deciding stage as the teams will round out with their calculators to qualify for the Super 12 stage. Namibia thrashed Sri Lanka by 55 runs on the opening day and bounced back with a win against the United Arab Emirates (UAE) on Tuesday. But can the 2014 World Champions still face elimination from the T20 World Cup?
What are permutations?
As things stand, Sri Lanka are third with two pins and a poor net run rate and will play the Netherlands in Geelong on Thursday. A win for them would get them four points and therefore would be better off in either the Netherlands or Namibia, at either point’s run rate.
So a win would see them seal the qualification for the Super 12 stage, while a loss would see them all but end their journey in the T20 World Cup.
In exceptional circumstances, if the rain gods are not kind and Sri Lanka’s match is washed out, they could face elimination if Namibia beat the United Arab Emirates in the other clash. If both matches end in a wash out, Sri Lanka will miss out on World Cup qualification as their net run rate is worse than Namibia and they will have few points compared to the Dutch.
If Sri Lanka vs Netherlands is anything to go by, Namibia will go into the Super 12 after beating the United Arab Emirates on Thursday. If both Sri Lanka and Namibia win, they will have four points each including the Netherlands and the net run rate will be the deciding factor. If it comes into play, Sri Lanka and Namibia will go into Super 12 as they will have better net run rates.
What happened on Tuesday?
After suffering heart-wrenching defeats in their respective first encounters against Namibia and the Netherlands, both Sri Lanka and the UAE had a lot to play for. UAE won the toss and decided to bowl first. Pathum Nisanka begins the proceedings with Kusal Mendis, Nissankan scored 74 off 60 balls, while Kusal Mendis fell victim to Aryan Lakra.
Dhananjay de Silva Scored 33 runs in 21 balls but apart from him, no other Lankan batsman could even score 10 runs. Sri Lanka put up a score of 153 for UAE to chase. Things turned bad for UAE, chasing the score. The UAE batsmen broke under the pressure as they were bundled out for 73 in their quota of 20 overs.