Women's T20 World Cup 2024: How Can India Qualify For Semifinals After Defeating Sri Lanka By Huge Margin Of 82 Runs?

Women's T20 World Cup 2024: The Women in Blue campaign in the ongoing mega-event with a 58-run loss to New Zealand in their tournament opener. They then bounced back by defeating their arch-rivals Pakistan by six wickets but it didn't help them much as their NRR remained poor. But their chances of qualifying for the semis were boosted after their match against Sri Lanka.

The Harmanpreet Kaur-led side registered their biggest victory as far as the margin of runs are concerned in this T20 World Cup as they defeated Sri Lanka by 82 runs in Dubai. Opener Smriti Mandhana's half-century had laid the foundation and then and then captain Harmanpreet took advantage of the long handle and smashed the fastest half-century by an Indian woman in the history of the T20 World Cup.

Shafali Varma too became the youngest cricketer to have achieved the milestone of scoring 2000 runs in Women's T20Is. After scoring 172/3 while batting first, the India bowlers stepped up. Renuka Sigh and Shreyanka Patil gave the team the much-needed breakthroughs and then Arundhati Reddy and Asha Shobana took three wickets each.

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The Women in Blue skittled Sri Lanka out for just 90 runs in 19.5 overs. This huge win helped them improve their NRR, which went from -1.271 to +0.576. After India's huge win, the Sophie Devine-led side is under immense pressure as well as their last two group-stage matches are against Pakistan and Sri Lanka.

Here's how the scenario stands after the India vs Sri Lanka clash:

1. India beat Australia

India, Australia, and New Zealand will have six points each. In such a situation, whichever top two teams have a better NRR would qualify for the semis.

Considering the NRR of all these teams, India (+0.576) and Australia (+2.524) have a better chance of qualifying for the semis instead of New Zealand (-0.555).

2. India lose to Australia

The Alyssa Healy-led side would have eight points and New Zealand with 6 would then progress to the knockout stage. The Women in Blue, who would then have four points would be eliminated from the tournament.

3. Others

India can still qualify for the semis with 4 points, but to ensure that teams like Pakistan and Sri Lanka should defeat New Zealand and Australia.

Here are the head-to-head records between India and Australia:

The Harmanpreet Kaur-led side have won just seven matches of the 34 that they played against Australia in the shortest format since 2008. One match ended in a tie and the other didn't have any result. As far as the Women's T20 World Cup is concerned, the head-to-head record between both the teams is 2-4.