T20 World Cup: India Face New Zealand in Virtual ‘Quarterfinal’ But Afghanistan a Step Ahead | Know Details Here
After suffering a 10-wicket hammering to Pakistan, Virat Kohli and Co. now have a tough task ahead in the race for the semifinals. India will next face New Zealand who had been a big roadblock for them in the past few ICC events. The Asian giants are currently placed at the fifth spot on the Group 2 standings as the NRR is going to make things difficult for them. The Pakistan defeat hurt India more than expected as Babar Azam and Co. dent their NRR by winning the match with 13 balls to spare.
India’s current NRR is -0.973 which is far below than New Zealand’s -0.532. Pakistan have almost sealed a place in the semifinals and now the main battle is between Kohli and Williamson’s men or we might witness either Afghanistan, Namibia or Scotland pulling off any major upset.
The Men in Blue will take the Kiwi clash as their virtual quarterfinal with Afghanistan keeping in mind. The Mohammad Nabi side has played quality cricket so far in the tournament and they put up a more challenging fight against Pakistan than India and New Zealand did. Afghanistan are in a better position than the other two cricketing giants as they have already opened their account on the points table by beating Scotland and their NRR is best in the group +3.092.
Both India and New Zealand have only played a match each in the ongoing T20 World Cup but their defeats to Pakistan had made things tricky for them. With Pakistan maintaining a winning streak of three matches in the group stage, India and New Zealand have to pull up their socks and now they have to win all of their matches from here to seal a place in the last four. If they don’t then both of them have to rely on the other teams’ results to move forward in the tournament.
It was the 2003 ODI World Cup when India last beat the Kiwis in an ICC event. After that, it has been 4-0 in favour of New Zealand and it’s the Indian batters who let them down almost every time.