T20 World Cup: How can Australia be knocked out of semis despite beating Afghanistan?

In a must-win game, Australia eked out a four-run victory against Afghanistan to keep their hopes of making it to the T20 World Cup 2022 semi-finals alive. All-rounder Glenn Maxwell was the star performer of the match as he smacked an unbeaten 54 runs off just 32 deliveries to help Australia set Afghanistan a target of 169 runs.

Afghanistan produced a spirited effort in reply as they scored 164 runs for the loss of seven wickets, only losing the clash by four runs in the end. Despite Australia's victory over Afghanistan, there is a chance that they could be knocked out of the T20 World Cup because of their extremely poor net run rate.

England could knock Australia out of T20 World Cup

As things stand in Group 1 of the T20 World Cup, only New Zealand have booked their place in the last four with an outstanding 35-run victory against Ireland earlier in the day. The race for the second spot from Group 1 is still open with two teams that can still progress: Australia and England.

With England having a far superior net run rate than Australia, the scenario for qualification for the semi-finals is simple. If England were to defeat Sri Lanka in their final group stage game on November 5, they would add two more points to their points tally and replace Australia in second.

However, in the case that Sri Lanka defeats England or the match gets abandoned, Australia will maintain their second place and qualify for the T20 World Cup semi-finals. Meanwhile, the race for qualification for the T20 World Cup 2022 semi-finals from Group 2 is wide open with as many as five teams still having a mathematical chance of progressing: India, South Africa, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Zimbabwe.

Australia will hope Sri Lanka beat England: Wade

After leading his side to victory against Afghanistan, stand-in Australian captain Matthew Wade said, "We will stay here tonight and watch the game tomorrow. We will be hoping for an upset. We put ourselves in this position from the get-go. We have been slow in this tournament and hopefully, it doesn't cost us."

The England vs Sri Lanka match will take place on Saturday, November 5, from the iconic Sydney Cricket Ground. The clash will commence live at 1:30 PM IST.