By the mid-innings stage of the Australia-Afghanistan game at the Adelaide Oval on Friday evening, it got confirmed that New Zealand will proceed through to the semi-final stage, although the confirmation was just the remaining formality as the Kiwis had all but sealed the semis spot earlier in the day with a 35-run victory over Ireland at the same venue.
In a great piece of news for New Zealand and their fans, skipper Kane Williamson returned to form just before the semi-final, bagging the Man of the Match award for his knock of 61 run in 35 balls against Ireland.
With this win, New Zealand reached 7 points. England and Australia placed second and third in the group, can also reach 7 points with a win in their respective last group matches. However, New Zealand finished with a significantly superior Net Run Rate (NRR) of +2.113 compared to England’s +0.547 and Australia’s -0.304m.
It was only mathematically possible for Australia to surpass New Zealand NRR: they needed to beat Afghanistan by 185+ runs to go past NZ’s NRR. But Australia scored 168 runs vs Afghanistan later in the day, and consequently this sealed New Zealand’s semi-final spot.
Who will qualify for the semi-final between England and Australia?
Now, the matter further is at which position does New Zealand finish the group? That will depend on the England-Sri Lanka game.
England will need a victory and a victory by some margin to remain ahead of Australia’s NRR should Australia beat Afghanistan by a margin that pushes their NRR over England’s; Australia needs to restrict Afghanistan to 104 to push their NRR over England’s. Even if they manage to do so, England will need a victory by a small margin to take their NRR back above Australia and qualify for the semis at the second spot behind New Zealand.
So basically, New Zealand is all but certain to finish at the top of the group – unless England conjures a stunning victory over Sri Lanka by a big difference, something which New Zealand did over Australia and Sri Lanka.
