The tournament is rapidly approaching the quarterfinal knockout stage and the rankings in each group are firming up enabling fairly specific speculations about the likely match ups in the knockout rounds. (Brackets are from this Wikipedia article.)
The four teams from Group A are now set. New Zealand is unassailable at #1 while Australia, Sri Lanka, and Bangladesh jockey for the next three positions that will determine which team from group B they will play in the quarterfinals. In their final group matches, Sri Lanka and Australia get to play Scotland and, if they both win, they will end up at #2 and #3 unless Bangladesh beats New Zealand and ruins the latter’s unbeaten record and takes the #3 spot away from Sri Lanka.
New Zealand must have been hoping that they got to play Australia in the semi-finals on their home turf in Auckland rather than in the finals in Australia, but that is not going to happen unless Australia slips to #3 which can only happen if Australia loses to Scotland and either Sri Lanka or Bangladesh (but not both) lose their last group games. This seems a highly unlikely combination of events.
In group B, India has claimed the #1 spot and South Africa is almost certain to occupy the #2 spot since its last game is against UAE. This will set up quarterfinal games of India v. Bangladesh and South Africa v. Sri Lanka.
The other two group B spots are being fought for between West Indies, Ireland, and Pakistan and this will not be decided until the last two group games Pakistan v. Ireland and West Indies v. UAE on Sunday.
An English friend taught me the rules of cricket a few years ago, but I’ve never properly watched until your posts about this world cup prompted me to. I have to say, I’m thoroughly enjoying it.
Looking at the remaining matches, it seems like Ireland really have to beat Pakistan to stay in. If they lose (assuming the UAE doesn’t pull off an upset), they would be tied with West Indies on points, but with a lower NRR. It would be a real shame for WI to go through on NRR when they have been so lackluster (with the exception of Gayle’s double century) and Ireland have played with so much heart and won the head-to-head match.
kumasama,
Welcome to the happy band of time-wasters known as cricket fans!
I totally agree with you. I too would like to see Ireland make it to the quarterfinals,despite the fact that the West Indies was the team that really fired up my enthusiasm for the game as a young boy.