Highlights
- Sri Lanka beat UAE in a do-or-die match on Tuesday
- They were earlier beaten by Namibia in the opening match of Round 1
- Group leaders Netherlands await Sri Lanka on Thursday
The T20 World Cup Round 1 has reached the decisive stage as teams will be out with their calculators as they seek qualification for the Super 12 stage. Sri Lanka who were stunned by Namibia on an opening day by a 55-run defeat bounced back to win against United Arab Emirates (UAE) on Tuesday with a win. But can the 2014 World Champions still face elimination from the T20 World Cup?
What are the permutations?
As things stand, Sri Lanka are third in the standings with two pints and a poor net run rate and will play the Netherlands on Thursday in Geelong. A win for them will see them go on four points and will therefore better either Netherlands or Namibia, either on a run rate of points.
A win therefore will see them seal qualification to the Super 12 stage, while a defeat will see them all but end their journey in the T20 World Cup.
In extraordinary circumstances, if the rain gods aren’t kind and Sri Lanka’s match gets washed out, they could face elimination if Namibia beat UAE in the other clash. If both the matches end in wash out, Sri Lanka will miss out on World Cup qualification as they have poor net run rate than Namibia and will have few points than the Dutch.
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Namibia will also seal passage into the Super12 if they beat UAE on Thursday, regardless of what happens in Sri Lanka vs the Netherlands. If both Sri Lanka and Namibia win, then they including the Netherlands will have four points each and the net run rate will be the deciding factor. If it does come into play then, Sri Lanka and Namibia will go to the Super 12 as they will have better net run rates.
|
Team |
Mat |
Won |
Lost |
Points |
NRR |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Net |
2 |
2 |
0 |
4 |
0.149 |
|
Nam |
2 |
1 |
1 |
2 |
1.277 |
|
SL |
2 |
1 |
1 |
2 |
0.600 |
|
UAE |
2 |
0 |
2 |
0 |
-2.028 |
What happened on Tuesday?
After facing heartbreaking defeat in their respective first encounters against Namibia and Netherlands, both Sri Lanka and the UAE had plenty to play for. UAE won the toss and opted to bowl first. Pathum Nissanka opened the proceedings with Kusal Mendis. Nissankaended up scoring a gritty 74 off 60 deliveries whereas Kusal Mendis fell prey to Aryan Lakra.
Dhananjaya de Silva scored 33 off 21 deliveries but apart from him, no Lankan batsman could score even 10 runs. Sri Lanka assigned a score of 153 for UAE to chase. Things went haywire for UAE who came out to chase the score. The United Arab Emirates batsmen crumbled under pressure as they bundled out for 73 in their quota of 20 overs.
