Christchurch, March 25: India will be eager to seal a berth in the semifinals of the ICC Women’s World Cup 2022 when they face South Africa, the last league match of the tournament as well, at the Hagley Oval on Sunday (March 27).
India perforce need a win in this match to remain in contention for the semis berth. India under Mithali Raj is currently 5th on the league table with 6 points from as many games.
England, who will face Bangladesh on Saturday, too have 6 points but they are 4th now on the table by virtue of their better net run-rate — 0.778 to India’s 0.768. West Indies are third on the table with 7 points and they have finished their league engagements.
Australia and South Africa have already locked two semifinal spots. Let’s take a look at the semifinal scenarios.
Scenario 1: If India and England both win their last group match, both of them will go to semifinals with 8 points at the expense of West Indies and will join SA and Australia, the only unbeaten team in the tournament so far.
Scenario 2: If India lose against South Africa and England win their match against Bangladesh then both England and West Indies will go to the semis. England will be 3rd placed team with 8 points and Windies the 4th team in that scenario with 7 points.
Scenario 3: If Both India and England lose their last league matches, then West Indies will qualify as the 3rd placed team because of their 7 points. One of England and India will qualify as the 4th placed team and it will depend on the run-rate because both of them will have 6 points.
At this moment, England have a better run-rate. India will have to hope that England lose in a big margin to Bangladesh so that their NRR go below India’s and ensure that their own margin of defeat against SA is not too big if it comes to that.
Match info
Match date: March 27, Sunday
Match time: 6.30 AM IST
Live Telecast: Star Sports Networks
Live Streaming: Disney + HotStar