Pakistan lost to India by six runs in their second match of the T20 World Cup 2024 which was played in New York on Sunday, which severely dented their chances of making it to the Super 8 of the tournament.
Pakistan failed to chase the 120-run target set by a struggling Indian batting side as all of their star players failed in New York.
With two losses in two matches, the path to the Super 8 has gotten extremely difficult as things are no longer in their hands.
With just two more matches to play, here is how Pakistan can qualify for the T20 World Cup Super 8 round.
June 11: Canada vs Pakistan — Pakistan win
June 12: USA vs India — India win
June 14: USA vs Ireland: — Ireland win
June 15: Canada vs India — India win
June 16: Ireland vs Pakistan — Pakistan win
If all the results go according to the above-mentioned scenario, Pakistan will have four points from four matches, while India will have eight. The USA will finish their group-stage campaign with the same points as Pakistan while Canada and Ireland will have two points each.
In the above-mentioned scenario, India will directly qualify for the Super Eight while the USA and Pakistan will have four points. In that case, Net Run Rate (NRR) will come into play. The Green Shirts need to register big-margin victories against Canada and Ireland and also hope the USA lose to India and Ireland with considerable margins.
Despite a positive start as Pakistan had not lost a wicket in the first four overs, the Green Shirts could not capitalise on the advantage as skipper Babar Azam became Jasprit Bumrah’s victim after scoring 13 runs.
Usman Khan came in after the skipper’s dismissal and he managed to support Mohammad Rizwan but the right-handed batter lost his wicket to Axar Patel.
Pakistan needed a partnership in the middle overs but none of their batters could provide that as Fakhar Zaman (13 off 8), Shadab Khan (4 off 7) and Imad Wasim (15 off 23) all left for the pavilion without scoring big.
However, the turning of the match was when Bumrah bowled Rizwan for 31 runs. The wicketkeeper batter was in a strong position and looked like the man to guide the Green Shirts to the victory but Bumrah denied that.
Pakistan finished their innings at 113-7 in 20 overs. For India, Bumrah bagged three wickets, Hardik Pandya got two while Arshdeep Singh and Axar Patel got one each.
Earlier in the first innings, the Pakistani bowlers dominated the Indian batters completely and didn’t give them much room to shine in one of the most anticipated matches of the tournament.
