2019 World Cup semis scenarios: England's dwindling fortune give Bangladesh, Sri Lanka a sniff
With Bangladesh winning on Monday against Afghanistan, the race to the top-four in the 2019 World Cup got a bit more interesting. Currently, England and Bangladesh are vying for the fourth spot with New Zealand, Australia and India sitting pretty at the top.
England play the second-placed Aussies on Tuesday at the Lord's and a win against them will help them go above India, who remain unbeaten after five games, winning four and one ending in a no-result. A loss today and England could be staring at elimination with India and New Zealand waiting in the wings to take them on.
This makes the old rivalry an interesting one and a make-or-break for the Three Lions at the Home of Cricket itself at Lord's. The loss to Sri Lanka have hurt the hosts and it's time to revive their shoddy campaign against an Australian team, which has gone from strength to strength after the return of their star performers in David Warner and Steve Smith.
Who else can come in then if England falter? Sri Lanka have an outside chance with Pakistan also fancying their chances if they can win their remaining games.
So, how does all of it pan out and what are the scenarios for each team to qualify? We take a look.
TOP 4 STANDINGS:
1. New Zealand (6 matches, 11 points). Remaining matches: vs Pakistan (June 26) | vs Australia (June 29) | vs England (July 3)
2. Australia (6 matches, 10 points). Remaining matches: vs England (June 25) | vs New Zealand (June 29) | vs South Africa (July 6)
3. India (5 matches, 9 points). Remaining matches: vs West Indies (June 27) | vs England (June 30) | vs Bangladesh (July 2) | vs Sri Lanka (July 6)
4. England (6 matches, 8 points). Remaining matches: vs Australia (June 25) | vs India (June 30) | vs New Zealand (July 3)
New Zealand and Australia are more or less certain to go through due to the wins accumulated already and same goes for India, who have four matches remaining with England as the only potential threat of a loss. The only threat in the top-four remains England's, who have failed to bag points and now face tough oppositions ahead, thus, allowing the mid-table teams a sniff in the competition.
MID TABLE STANDINGS:
5. Bangladesh (7 matches, 7 points). Remaining matches: vs India (July 2) | vs Pakistan (July 5)
6. Sri Lanka (6 matches, 6 points) - Remaining matches: vs South Africa (June 28) | vs West Indies (July 1) | vs India (July 6)
7. Pakistan (6 matches, 5 points) - Remaining matches: vs New Zealand (June 26) | vs Afghanistan (June 29) | vs Bangladesh (July 5)
Points table as of June 25
Bangladesh can reach a maximum of 11 points if they can beat the likes of India and Pakistan and better their net run-rate while Sri Lanka can reach 12 if they manage to beat South Africa, West Indies and India. Pakistan much like Bangladesh need to win all their remaining three games against New Zealand, Afghanistan and Bangladesh to stand a chance to play the semi-finals.
But, either of Bangladesh or Pakistan can only make the cut as they play each other out and the winner will have the bragging rights. However, even a win might not be enough as other teams especially England or India for that matter might need to lose for them to stand a chance of qualifying.
The lower half of the table consists of West Indies (8th), South Africa (9th) and Afghanistan (10th) -- these teams have little or no chance of making it through to the next round. The Windies can still fancy their chances due to their positive net run-rate of +0.190 and big wins against the likes of India (July 27), Sri Lanka (July 1) and Afghanistan (July 4)
