T20 World Cup 2024: How Pakistan Can Still Qualify For Super 8 After Defeat To India?

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Pakistan edged closer to an early elimination from the T20 World Cup 2024 after they followed up their shock loss to the tournament co-hosts USA with a 6-run loss to arch-rivals India on Sunday (June 9) in New York.

Babar Azam-led side were at the wrong end of the biggest World Cup upsets in Dallas, Texas on June 6 when they lost via Super Over to USA, and three days later they stare at en early exit after defeat to India at the Nassau County International Cricket Stadium.

Despite bowling out India for 119 on the challenging pitch in New York, Pakistan fell short in their chase, collapsing from 73 for 2 in 12.1 overs to 88 for 5 in 16.3 overs, losing the set batter Mohammad Rizwan (31 off 44 balls) in the process.

Still in the contest, they further lost 2 wickets with the total at 102 and could only manage to reach 114/7 in their allotted 20 overs to get closer to the exit rather than the next round. But, the 2009 champions still have the slimmest of chances to reach the Super 8s.

How can Pakistan still qualify for T20 World Cup 2024 Super 8 from Group A?

Win-less in two, Pakistan currently occupy the fourth spot in the Group A points table with India and USA sitting in the first and second spots, and Canada in third spot, while Ireland sit rock-bottom.

If the table finishes as it stands, then Pakistan will be taking a flight back home earlier than many expected. However, there is still some hope. But Babar & Co will need a miracle to progress to the Super 8 from here.

First of all they need to win their remaining matches against Canada (June 11) and Ireland (June 16) by a good margin, and then hope USA lose their remaining matches against India (June 12) and Ireland (June 14) by a big margin, to stay in contention.

With a Net Run Rate (NRR) of -0.150, Pakistan have their task cut out to better USA's NRR of +0.626. But a huge defeat for USA in their remaining two matches, which seems very unlikely, could give the Asian giants some hope of qualification.

India may do them a favour by beating USA, but this Pakistan team may find it hard to get the job done themselves as they have already suffered an upset loss. There is no guarantee that they could beat Ireland and Canada for a start.

Ireland has already upset Pakistan in previous World Cups, while Canada also have shown some fight in their first-ever T20 World Cup. Pakistan would have been fancied to join India from Group A in the Super 8s, but the 2022 runners up may soon depart from the USA and Caribbean.