T20 World Cup: How can India qualify for semi-finals despite losing to South Africa?

Team India's unbeaten start to the T20 World Cup 2022 was ended by South Africa on Sunday, October 30 after a nail-biting 5-wicket loss. Apart from Suryakumar Yadav, other batsmen failed to deal with the Proteas pacers. After putting up just 133 runs on board, Indian bowlers did put up a good fight only for fielders to let them down by dropping catches. Virat Kohli is usually known to have a safe pair of hands dropped Aiden Markram which ultimately proved costly for Team India.

Besides Markram, David Miller also scored a half-century in helping the team win their second match of the campaign. The Temba Bavuma-led side is currently unbeaten after three matches and occupies the top spot on the T20 World Cup 2022 points table. We take a look at India's semi-final qualification chances post the loss against South Africa.

T20 World Cup 2022: How can India still qualify for the semifinals despite losing to South Africa?

Before the match against South Africa, India was unbeaten in Group 2 after winning both their opening matches against Pakistan and Netherlands. However, the loss to Proteas in Perth makes the situation a little tricky for Men in Blue. Team India is scheduled to face Bangladesh on November 2 and Zimbabwe on November 6 and needs to win both the remaining matches to qualify for the knockouts. 

Rohit Sharma-led team will be aiming to finish the group stage at the top of the points table and to do that, they will not only need to win their remaining matches but also South Africa to lose either of their games against Pakistan or Netherlands. If one of South Africa's games is washed out, India can also achieve the top spot on the basis of net run rate.

If India loses any of the two matches, they will have to hope that the other teams' results go in their favour.

India vs South Africa match highlights

After winning the toss and opting to bat first, India lost both their openers Rohit Sharma and KL Rahul inside the first five overs. Lungi Ngidi removed both the batsmen for 15 and 9 runs respectively. India's situation got worse as three more wickets fell in the next four overs. India lost half of the team for just 49 runs on board with Ngidi accounting for two more wickets, of Virat Kohli and Hardik Pandya.

It was Suryakumar Yadav who gave some respect to India's total by playing an explosive knock of 68 runs in just 40 balls. The batter was eventually dismissed by Wayne Parnell. The left-arm pacer finished with three wickets, while Anrich Nortje had one wicket to his name. Indian bowlers began with a bang as Arshdeep Singh accounted for the wickets of Rilee Rossouw and Quinton de Kock in one over to put Proteas on backfoot. However, the match-winning partnership between Markram and David Miller and the sloppy effort on the field by India led to them losing the match in the final over.