T20 World Cup 2024: Why South Africa Has Not Qualified For Semi-Final Despite Two Wins in Two?

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South Africa registered narrow 7-run victory over England in the T20 World Cup 2024 Super 8 match at the Daren Sammy National Cricket Stadium in Gros Islet, St Lucia on Friday (June 21).

After Quinton de Kock (65 off 38 balls) and David Miller (43 off 28 balls) powered South Africa to 163/6 in their allotted 20 overs, the final three overs bowled by Kagiso Rabada (2 for 32), Marco Jansen (0 for 31) and Anrich Nortje (1 for 35) restricted England to 156/6.

This was the second win on the trot for South Africa in the Super 8 stages with the Proteas having win their opening game against USA by 18 runs at the Sir Vivian Richards Stadium in North Sound, Antigua & Barbuda on Tuesday (June 18).

Usually a team winning two matches in the Super 8 could be guaranteed of progress to the next round, but South Africa have still not got the (Q) next to their name in the Super 8 Group 2 points table, where the Proteas occupy the top spot.

Why has South Africa not qualified for T20 World Cup 2024 Semi-Final despite winning two in two in the Super 8?

According to the ICC playing conditions, the top two teams from the respective groups of the Super 8 will progress to the semi-finals, which will be played on Thursday (June 27). The first semi-final will be staged in Tarouba, Trinidad, while the second semi will be played in Guyana.

Progression of Teams Second Round, as per ICC

In the event of teams finishing on equal points in their Group, the right to progress to the semi-finals will be decided in the following order of priority:

1. The team with the greatest number of wins in its Group will be placed in the higher position.
2. If there are teams with equal points and equal wins in its Group, then in such case the team with the higher net run rate in its Group will be placed in the higher position.
3. If two or more teams are still equal, they will be ordered according to the head-to-head match played between them.
4. If the above does not resolve the Group ordering, or if all matches within a Group produce no results, then the teams will be ordered as per their position on the ICC Men's T20I Rankings as at the 31st May 2024.

So, South Africa, who currently top the table, will seal the semi-final spot if England lose to USA or England don't improve massively on their NRR. South Africa's NRR is +0.625, while England's is +0.412.

But if they lose to West Indies, who already have a superior NRR with +1.814, South Africa will hope they don't lose by a massive margin to the tournament co-hosts as it would bring England in the conversation should the defending champions beat USA.