T20 World Cup 2021: Here's why India cannot qualify for semi-finals of the tournament

New Zealand’s win over Afghanistan meant that India were knocked out of T20 World Cup 2021. The New Zealand vs Afghanistan match was crucial for India and their fate was in hands of Afghanistan. They wanted Afghanistan to win against New Zealand to stay alive. It would then have been decided by the Net Run Rate. India were going to play last and had a better run rate than Afghanistan and New Zealand before today’s match. They would have known the exact equation in the game against Namibia for them to qualify. But with New Zealand winning against Afghanistan, they ended with eight points winning four out of their five matches after the loss against Pakistan while the maximim India could have reached was six points if they beat Namibia. Pakistan had already qualified for the semis with four wins from their first four matches. So how did they get into this situation? India didn’t start off well and that hurt them. They lost to Pakistan by 10 wickets in their opener. New Zealand too lost their opening match of the tournament against Pakistan. And then Pakistan went on to win three matches in three, beating Afghanistan as well to consolidate their position at the top and become the favourites to qualify first from Group 2. [caption id=“attachment_10110981” align=“alignnone” width=“640”]  R Ashwin and Virat Kohli pictured during India’s match against Afghanistan. AP[/caption] The India vs New Zealand match then became crucial. The team that won the match would have gained the upper hand given they were considered to be favourites to win against the other teams. India didn’t turn up against New Zealand either. The batting failed again as the Kiwis bowled to their plans and restricted India to 110/7. New Zealand chased that down with 5.3 overs and eight wickets to spare. That was a crucial win for the Kiwis. Pakistan then thumped Namibia to qualify for the semis. Afghanistan’s big wins over Scotland and Namibia had meant that they had a very good run rate. New Zealand needed to win by a good margin against Scotland to better their run rate but they couldn’t as they won by just 16 runs. But they had two crucial points in the bag. India now needed to win big in their rest of the matches to keep their hopes alive and stay in contention. They turned things around with a 66-run win over Afghanistan but New Zealand kept going with a 52-run win over Namibia, bagging another two points. India then absolutely thumped Scotland by 8 wickets and that propelled them over Afghanistan and their NRR jumped over both Afghanistan and New Zealand’s. Their fate however rested on the Afghanistan vs New Zealand match. Because New Zealand were already on six points and a win over Afghanistan in their last match would have sealed a place in the semis for the Black Caps. New Zealand beat Afghanistan comfortably to cruise into the semis. If Afghanistan had won against the Kiwis, it would have kept them alive as well but only just about. They would have needed to win big against New Zealand and then hoped that Namibia beat India. While India would have been in stronger position having the equation in front of them against Namibia who were already knocked out. The Kiwis though proved to be too good for Afghanistan as they bowled, caught and fielded brilliantly. India were left to rue the start they got. If only they had beat one of Pakistan or New Zealand, it would have got really interesting in the group.