T20 World Cup 2022: Pakistan Can Still Qualify for the Semi-finals After India’s Defeat Against SA

Temba Bavuma-led South Africa defeated India in their high-stakes Super 12 match on Sunday. India’s defeat against South Africa has opened up the race for the semi-finals in group 2. After suffering two consecutive defeats against India and Zimbabwe, Pakistan were on the verge of being eliminated from the Super 12 stage itself.

The game between India and South Africa had big implications for the rest of the group, particularly for Pakistan, whose semi-final hopes were hanging by a thread. After Sunday’s results, Pakistan is now closer to being knocked out of ICC’s showpiece event. But it is worth mentioning that Babar Azam and Co still have a slim chance of making it through to the semi-finals.

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South Africa’s thumping win means that not only does Pakistan have to win their remaining matches against South Africa and Bangladesh, but also hope that either India lose to Bangladesh and Zimbabwe or South Africa are beaten by the Netherlands.

Earlier in the day, Pakistan were clinical in their own match against the Netherlands at the same venue. Pakistan steamrolled the Netherlands to win by six wickets and keep their semi-final hopes alive.

Coming to India’s match, skipper Rohit Sharma and coach Rahul Dravid will be concerned with their teams’s performance against the Proteas. While batting first, India’s top order crumbled in front of the quality pace bowling attack of South Africa. The only Indian batter who impressed was Suryakumar Yadav. The 32-year-old played a masterful knock of 68 runs off 40 balls to rescue India. India were also sloppy in the field as they provided multiple reprieves for South Africa’s Aiden Markram.

In the 12th over, Virat Kohli dropped an absolute sitter at the deep midwicket boundary after Markram’s shot came straight towards him. Skipper Rohit Sharma also missed an easy run out of Markram. India will look to make amends in their next match against Bangladesh.

But India’s woeful cricket against South Africa has infuriated Pakistani fans who were relying on India to win on Sunday. Several fans took to Twitter to suggest that Team India had lost the match on purpose. One fan wrote, “We can never rely on India. Two times we needed them to win: India vs England 2019 and India vs South Africa 2022. Both time they let us down.”

It will be interesting to see if Pakistan still can make the semi-finals despite all the setbacks.

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