I should have put USA in the title to make it a bit more click-baity for my American followers, but this post is not just about them. The T20 Cricket World Cup is about half way through the Group Stage and there have already been some really interesting results that will likely effect which teams will make the Super 8 Stage...and while it’s still a bit early I am sure that the world “Historic” will be thrown around soon enough.
The biggest story is the USA who have defeated stalwart cricket nation Pakistan in a Super Over (Tied Match in Overtime). Now that India has also beat Pakistan all the USA has to do now to make Top 2 in Group A is beat Ireland (who are currently winless) and they are guaranteed to make the next stage. This is going to be huge news in the cricket world as the USA has never really been a serious contender on the world stage before. Personally I am very happy for my American friends because this is a big achievement and it's great for the game.
In Group B the nation at risk of early elimination is England after their game against Scotland was washed out and the points were shared. Australia just knocked over England and Scotland has beaten the other 2 minnows in this group so the BEST case scenario here is that England wins their next 2 games, Scotland loses against Australia AND THEN it comes down to Net Run Rate. As a very proud and traditional cricket nation, if England miss the Group 8 stage of this World Cup they will go into full meltdown so watch this space!
Group C has another shock in store with perpetual overachievers New Zealand dropping their match against up-and-comers Afghanistan. New Zealand are in real trouble here and will face home team West Indies in a must-win game or they are going to be on an early flight home. Even if they win that game it might come down to Net Run Rate too and they currently look pretty bad on that front.
Finally in Group D there has been no big surprises yet. It was expected that South Africa would be the strongest nation in this pool (and they have been) while the 2nd place was going to be a tussle between Sri Lanka and Bangladesh. At the moment Bangladesh have their noses in front so barring any major upset I think they’ll be the ones to go through.
It wouldn’t be a World Cup if there weren’t some big upsets and seeing England and Pakistan knocked out in the group stages is something we’ve seen before, however if New Zealand falls down too then it really will be a new look for the Super 8 Stage at this World Cup. May the best teams win!
