Pakistan and South Africa did away with the 26th match of the ongoing ICC Cricket World Cup 2023, yesterday at the MA Chidambaram Stadium in Chennai. Yet again, a series of events took the Men in Green to their fourth straight defeat in the ongoing tournament. South Africa emerged victorious against Babar’s men by a margin of just one wicket with 16 balls to spare.
After winning the toss, Pakistan opted to bat first and went on to deliver a convincing target of 271 runs while the Proteas reckoned on their extraordinary team performance as always and managed to chase the target with 16 balls to spare. With Pakistan now looming on the borderline dismissal from the tournament, their chances of making it to the semi-finals are almost rare. Despite a stunning losing streak, a series of contradictory wins can help the struggling team make their chances.
Winning the remainders
Pakistan has played a total of 6 matches till now, with their leaderboard at 2 wins and 4 losses. To make their chance in the semi-finals, the team will have to win all the remaining 3 matches of the tournament against Bangladesh, New Zealand and England and that too with a considerable net run rate. While winning the remainder is important for them, they will also have to depend on New Zealand needing the Kiwis to lose their remaining matches so that Pakistan can surpass them with higher points on the board.
Highly dependent on Australia
Well, the above concluded situation is an important factor for the team, most importantly they will need Australia to finish off poorly on the leaderboard. Australia will have to lose 3 out 4 remaining matches so that they can finish with only 8 points. Should Australia win only two of them, the final verdict will be decided by their net run rate. Also, then Pakistan will need India, New Zealand and South Africa to win against Afghanistan and Sri Lanka who are currently ranked at the same level as Pakistan.
If these conditions are fulfilled, India, South Africa and New Zealand will finish in the top 3 spots followed by Pakistan and then Australia at 5th position meaning they will be ruled out of the tournament. Now, the next match between Pakistan and Bangladesh on October 31 will make the final verdict for the Men in Green.
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