India, Proteas, Australia set for CWC semis; NZ, Pakistan scrap for last four.

By Neil Manthorp.

While South Africa spend four days licking their wounds in Ahmedabad following their 243-thrashing by hosts India on Sunday, the final push for the remaining semifinal places will be concluded before the week is over.

Australia face Afghanistan at the high-scoring Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai on Tuesday with victory certain to cement their spot in the final four while New Zealand and Pakistan face must-win games to a chance of clinch the final place in the knockout stages.

Afghanistan kept their fairytale dream alive with resounding wins against Sri Lanka and the Netherlands, both by seven-wickets, but now face the daunting task of beating both Australia and then South Africa in their final game at the Narendra Modi Stadium on Friday.

Even if they manage that they will have to significantly improve their net run-rate to deny New Zealand fourth place provided the Black Caps beat struggling Sri Lanka in their final match.

Pakistan, too, must beat England in their final match, and do so comprehensively to overtake New Zealand whose fate is in their own hands with a significantly superior net run-rate.

In fact, Pakistan looked certain to exit the tournament when New Zealand piled up a daunting 401-6 in the match between the two teams but Babar Azam’s team made a flying start to the run-chase with 126* from only 81 balls from opener Fakhar Azam and 66 not out from the captain to reach 200-1 after 25.3 overs when rain ended the contest in Bengaluru giving Pakistan a surprise DLS victory by 21-runs.

Australia’s resurgent form continued with a dominant 33-run victory against old enemies England to give them a fifth consecutive victory after their opening two losses are now virtually locked in for a semifinal showdown against South Africa in Kolkata in the 2nd v 3rd semifinal in Kolkata next Thursday.

Unbeaten hosts and hot favourites, India, seem likely to face New Zealand in the 1st v 4th play-off match at the Wankhede the day before.

There is another ‘contest within a contest’, however, with only the top eight out of the ten teams qualifying for the 50-over Champions Trophy set to staged in Pakistan in 2025. Defending champions England, having already endured the worst defence of the title in World Cup history, are currently bottom of the log and needing to beat both the Netherlands on Wednesday and Pakistan on Saturday in order to ensure they are a part of that tournament.

Australia also play their final group game on Saturday, against Bangladesh, while India conclude the group stage with the final game against the Netherlands in Bengaluru on Sunday.

Meanwhile Bangladesh’s three-wicket win over Sri Lanka was overshadowed by Angelo Mathews’ controversial timed out dismissal in Delhi.

The former Sri Lanka skipper became the first international cricketer to be given out timed out.

Mathews protested that an issue with his helmet prevented him from being in position to face up to his first ball within the required two minutes of the previous wicket, but much to his and Sri Lanka’s astonishment, the wicket stood.

Scroll to Top