Are Australia knocked out of T20 World Cup 2024?
Afghanistan caused a major stir in the 2024 T20 World Cup by defeating 2021 champions Australia by 21 runs in Kingstown on Sunday, June 23. A brilliant and careful opening stand from Rahmanullah Gurbaz and Ibrahim Zadran took the Afghans to 148/6, halted a bit by Pat Cummins' second-consecutive international hat-trick.
They then put up an even better bowling show with Naveen-ul-Haq taking out two early wickets of Travis Head and Mitchell Marsh and then Gulbadin Naib running a middle-overs riot with his spell of 4/20. Glenn Maxwell put up a fight with 59 (41) but the next biggest contribution came from extras (16) followed by Marsh's 12 (9).
The defeat didn't bring a major change in the points table, with Australia staying at second with two points and an NRR of 0.223 and Afghanistan following with two points and an NRR of -0.650. However, now, although both teams are still in contention for a semi-final spot, Australia are in a much worse position.
They'll now want to beat India on Monday (just over 24 hours after the Afghanistan clash) in their last Super-Eight game with a massive margin. If they do that and beat India's NRR, they'll seal qualification to the semi-finals.
If they win but stay behind India on NRR, Afghanistan will be able to qualify by defeating Bangladesh, given they do it with a margin good enough to go past Australia's NRR on Tuesday. If Australia lose to India, then Afghanistan will just have to beat Bangladesh to go to the next round.
So, Australia are still not out of the 2024 T20 World Cup.
India hold key to the T20 World Cup semi-final spot
India, who are unbeaten, now hold the key to the semi-finals spot. They can't afford a slip against Australia because a big loss might put their spot in jeopardy.
And they won't want the Kangaroos to come through to the semis with them either because it'd mean having a chance to face them again in the final, the third straight time after the World Test Championship and the ODI World Cup last year.