T20 WC 2022: EXPLAINED! How AUS & ENG can reach knockouts after rain forces them to share points

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The rain had the final say in the doubleheaders at the Men’s T20 World Cup on Friday (October 28). After the Ireland-Afghanistan clash was washed out due to rain, in Group A, the Australia-England face-off also met with the same fate.

The T20 WC has lived up to expectations so far. However, rain has forced many games to be washed out in the main draw of the competition. Earlier in Group A, the New Zealand-Afghanistan match was also abandoned without a ball being bowled. Friday’s doubleheaders, at the MCG, Melbourne, didn’t even see the coin toss taking place.

Following a no-show on Friday, Group A continues to be wide open. At present, New Zealand occupies the top spot whereas England, Ireland, and Australia follow suit with an equal number of points (three each). Sri Lanka and Afghanistan are at the bottom slots, respectively, with two points apiece. Here’s how England, and Australia can enter the semi-finals despite rain forcing their face-off to be washed out in Melbourne:

While NZ is at the top at the moment, SL have a realistic chance of progressing ahead, Ireland can make the top four only if they win the remainder of the games whereas Afghanistan is almost out. For England and Australia, the 2010 winners need to win both their remaining games as their NRR is a saving grace as of now (+0.239 ). For the hosts and defending champions to qualify, they have to win big versus both Ireland and Afghanistan. While that is possible by all means, Australia will qualify straightaway if England, Ireland and Sri Lanka lose one more clash. SL is their biggest threat currently, assuming NZ are strong contenders to top the group, which has one more game to play than the two European nations.

Even if Australia can better their NRR as compared to England and Ireland, they will hope and pray for the Lankans to concede at least one game (out of the three). 

ALSO READ | T20 WC: After Ireland-Afghanistan, Australia vs England also washed out without a ball being bowled

What they said:

Aaron Finch: The outfield has taken a drenching over the last couple of weeks. That’s the wettest I’ve ever seen in this stadium. The run-ups were a really issue and around the inner circle, it were very wet. It’s more about players’ safety. We saw one of the Zimbabweans go down the other day. If you are trying to run there, it’s going to be a real issue. Everyone was ready to play, there was a great turnout, disappointing not to get on. The amount of rain that Melbourne has had has been amazing. He (Wade) was going to play tonight. He had few symptoms yesterday but he was good to go. You got to try and win firstly. Then you try and push for the NRR. You can never underestimate Ireland and Afghanistan. They’ve got some world-class players. You can overplay the situation at times and that takes you focus off your job at hand. We’ll control what we can.

Jos Buttler: Was supposed to be a massive occasion, full house here against Australia, biggest game of your career, very disappointed not to be able to play tonight. Would have been a great place to do it (100th game). But full focus on our next match and keep our tournament alive. We’ve been playing some good cricket leading into the tournament. Really disappointing the other night specially when we had majority of things in our favour. We don’t become a bad team overnight. We are full of match-winners. Looking forward to the rest of the tournament. The guys are rested up well and we were ready to play tonight as well. Few days now to clear everything out, have a couple of good training days and then look forward to the next game.

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