Defending champions Australia will face off against New Zealand in the next match of Group A in the ICC Women’s T20 World Cup at Sharjah. The two unbeaten teams in this group, having won their respective opening matches of the tournament, this match will set the stage for qualifications scenarios entering the last two sets of matches in the group stages.

This is especially true for India, who would have considered themselves favourites to exit the group alongside Australia, but are in a spot of bother after a heavy opening loss to New Zealand, which puts the Kiwis in a great position and places India in jeopardy.

India’s current standing

India bounced back from their opening loss with a victory against Pakistan, but taking their time in the chase against the arch-rivals means that the damage to the net run-rate from the first match is still present.

Ahead of the New Zealand-Australia match, India find themselves fourth in the table, tied on points with both those teams as well as Pakistan, but behind all three on net run-rate by a significant amount.

Only winless Sri Lanka, who India play against on Wednesday, sit behind them.

Whoever wins the match between Australia and New Zealand will go clear at the top of the table, with NRR impact being the key for India to keep an eye on.

If Australia wins

An Australia win would see the defending champs go top clear on points, due to play Pakistan and close out their group stages against India. They would be in a strong position to win at least one of those two matches if not both.

In this scenario, their poor net run-rate will mean India will need Australia to beat Pakistan, and then either Sri Lanka or Pakistan to do them a favour by beating the Kiwis in their match. To make the ask even tougher, if they want to make NRR a non-issue, they will also need to make sure they beat Australia on the final day.

If New Zealand wins

Conversely, a New Zealand win will mean India could make their match against Australia on October 13 a straight shoot-out to see who qualifies. For this, India will need to win against Sri Lanka, and Australia will need to beat Pakistan.

This would mean both teams enter that match tied on 6 points and with NRR made largely irrelevant. A pre-semifinal, whoever wins that match would qualify directly for the knockouts, setting up a mouth-watering contest between two giants.

India’s remaining matches

India is scheduled to play Sri Lanka on October 9, the opposition they fell in a shock loss to in the finals of this year’s Asia Cup. If they get over this banana peel, a must-win encounter against tournament favourites Australia awaits on October 13.

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