ICC Women’s World Cup 2022: How India Can Enter Semifinals After Win Over Bangladesh

Just 6 more round-robin matches to go at the ICC Women’s World Cup 2022 and only one team, Australia, has qualified for the semi-finals of the tournament so far. (More Sports News)

While South Africa’s entry to the final 4 seems almost certain, England, West Indies and India are expected to fight for the remaining two spots.

Talking about India, West Indies’ loss to Pakistan gave the Women in Blue additional hopes of qualification and they cashed in on the opportunity with a big win over Bangladesh on Tuesday. The 2017 finalists have a good chance to enter the semi-finals now. Here are the possibilities for their qualification:

So, the first and easiest route for India to enter the final is to win the game against South Africa. This will take the Mithali Raj-led side to 8 points with a net run-rate (NRR) that is surely going to be better than those of England and West Indies who can also win their remaining games and have 8 points each to their credit. In that case, India are more likely to enter the semi-final at the cost of West Indies, who have an NRR of -0.885, the worst among all.

Notably, the Women in Blue can still have a chance even if they lose their last round-robin game. If India lose the match to South Africa that means the Proteas will qualify for the semi-finals as the second team after Australia.

In that case India would need West Indies to lose their final match that is against South Africa. This will limit West Indies to 6 points and their poor NRR will throw them out of India’s competition. Meanwhile, Windies’ qualification chances will also become bleak in that case and would rely heavily on how England perform in their remaining two matches.

But what if West Indies win. Well, in that case, India will have to pray that England, who have 4 points from 5 games, lose at least one of their games. This will see both India and England ending up at 6 points and the Women in Blue could eventually advance to the final on the virtue of a better NRR.

Even if Pakistan or Bangladesh or New Zealand win their remaining games they could hardly trouble India as the three can now have a maximum of 6 points that too with an NRR that is going to be less than that of India’s.