Pakistani fans were contented as the ‘Green Army’ reignited semifinal hopes after defeating the previously unbeaten New Zealand at the ICC Cricket World Cup 2019 on Wednesday.
After a disappointing start at the ICC Cricket World Cup 2019, Pakistan can still qualify for the semifinals with 2 matches remaining. The hosts, England defeat against Sri Lanka on June 21 and against Australia on June 25, opened the ICC Cricket World Cup 2019 points table with six teams contending for the remaining three positions on the points table with Australia already qualified for the semifinals.
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India and New Zealand look the strongest contenders to fill two of the three spots for the ICC Cricket World Cup 2018 semifinals. While England, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka still have their chances to qualify for the semifinals.
England, which is at the fourth position on the points table are aiming for the final spot but Pakistan looks to be the strongest on paper to qualify for the semifinals. However, the ICC Cricket World Cup 2019 qualification scenarios are not as easy as it seems.
There are two scenarios for Pakistan to qualify for the ICC Cricket World Cup 2019 semifinals.
Scenario 1 – Pakistan win their remaining two matches
The Green Army will certainly aim to win their remaining two matches against Afghanistan and Bangladesh. However, winning their remaining two matches will also not guarantee a place in the semifinals for Pakistan.
Sarfaraz Khan and co. will, therefore, hope that England at least loses one of their remaining two matches against India and New Zealand. Even if England wins both of their matches, Pakistan would hope that India or New Zealand lose all of their games and have an inferior net run rate than them as they will be tied at 11 points each. However, the second case is highly unlikely but there is a possibility.
Scenario 2 – Pakistan wins one of their remaining two matches
Pakistan can still make it to the top 4 even if they lose one of their remaining two matches. However, they will be needing a lot of luck to qualify in this scenario.
If the Green Army lose one more match, they would hope that England loses both of their remaining matches with Sri Lanka losing at least two of their remaining three matches. Pakistan will also want Bangladesh to lose their remaining two matches or have an inferior net run rate than Pakistan if they win one of their matches.
It will be interesting to see which teams will go into the semifinals of the ICC Cricket World Cup 2019 with none of the four teams looking to have a cakewalk till the semifinals.
