The much anticipated India-Pakistan T20 World Cup match in Colombo on Sunday turned to be a one-sided affair with Pakistan succumbing to a 61-run defeat. While India has qualified for the Super Eight after the win, the road for Pakistan has become a little tricky.
Batting first India posted a slightly above par score of 175/7, riding high on Ishan Kishan's blistering knock of 77 in 40 balls. Pakistan hardly troubled India in the run-chase as they were bowled out on 114 with Usman Khan top-scoring for the team with an innings of 44.
After the defeat in Colombo, things aren't that straight forward for the Salman Agha led side and as Pakistan are staring at the danger of an early elimination from the T20 World Cup for a second straight edition.
To understand how Pakistan is placed following the defeat, we first have to look at the Group A points table:
| Group A | |||||
| Team | Matches | Won | Lost | Points | Net Run Rate |
| India (Q) | 3 | 3 | 0 | 6 | 3.050 |
| USA | 4 | 2 | 2 | 4 | 0.788 |
| Pakistan | 3 | 2 | 1 | 4 | -0.403 |
| Netherlands | 3 | 1 | 2 | 2 | -1.352 |
| Namibia | 3 | 0 | 3 | 0 | -2.443 |
As things stand, USA are second and Pakistan are third in Group A. Yesterday, USA registered a comprehensive win over the Netherlands. The victory gave USA's net run rate a significant boost and propelled them to the second spot on the points table. Likewise, Pakistan's huge defeat against India, dented their net rate.
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The following fixtures remain to be played from Group A — India v Netherlands and Pakistan v Namibia. Both these game will be played on Feb.18. While India-Netherlands match is of little consequence, there will be significant interest around Pakistan-Namibia match as it has become a do-or-die match for the Men In Green. If Namibia upstage Pakistan in that contest, then Pakistan will wrap up their group stage campaign with just four points and net run rate which will be poorer to that of USA, and they will exit the tournament. This will pave way for USA to go through to the Super Eight stage for a second edition in a row.
USA can't do anything as they have played all their group-stage matches. They can only expect a favour from Namibia.
Netherlands' remote chance of qualifying for Super Eights
There can be a scenario, that neither Pakistan nor USA qualifies for the Super Eight and instead Netherlands becomes the second team from this group to be amongst the big boys. For that to happen, Namibia need to beat Pakistan and Netherlands should defeat India by a comprehensive margin. The margin should be so big that Netherlands current Net Run Rate of -1.352 becomes better than USA's current Net Run Rate of 0.788. If that happens, the Scott Edwards led-side will have an extended tournament!
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