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Cricket World Cup 2023: With six straight wins, will India qualify for semi-finals?

With 12 points under their belt, India currently sit comfortably at the top of the standings

With six wins from as many games, the Indian cricket team currently look simply unstoppable at the World Cup 2023. With 12 points under their belt, India currently sit comfortably at the top of the standings.

The Rohit Sharma-led side extended their magnificent winning streak to six games on Sunday. They thrashed defending champions England by 100 runs in Lucknow. Despite their rich vein of form, India have not been able to book their berth in the semi-finals.

In fact, a deep dive into the World Cup points table suggests that India may end up being unable to earn a semi-final spot. But the chances of that happening are quite slim. And, the complex nature of the standings reveals that no team, including bottom-placed England, are mathematically out of the World Cup semi-final contention yet.

This basically means that India may very well end up not getting eliminated from the league stage of the World Cup. But that would require a huge stroke of bad luck and innumerable results going against the host team.

India’s World Cup journey can come to an end if they lose their remaining three fixtures by big margins and the triumvirate of New Zealand, South Africa or Australia are either level with them, in terms of points, or ahead of them. Moreover, to eliminate India, Afghanistan and Sri Lanka will have to win each of their remaining matches and that too by big margins.

Meanwhile, England, despite lying at the bottom of the table, are mathematically alive in the competition. The reigning champions currently have two points in their kitty. The Jos Buttler-led outfit will have to win the remaining three games to stay in the hunt for a ticket to the semi-final. Merely winning three games, however, will not be enough for them. England would want one of Australia and New Zealand, or maybe both, to not collect more than eight points at the league stage of the tournament.

In that scenario, the Net Run Rate (NRR) will become the deciding factor in determining the semi-finalists. If all goes in their favour, England by virtue of a potentially strong NRR may get a chance to reach the knockouts. In their next World Cup 2023 fixture, England will be up against five-time champions Australia on Saturday.

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