In a sudden turn of events, Sri Lanka shocked the cricketing world with a thumping win over Australia in their third group stage fixture. The joint hosts got the better of the team from down under and pulled off an eight wicket win at the Pallekele International Cricket Stadium in Balagolla. With this win, Sri Lanka have sent across a statement of intent about what they bring to the table this time.
Australia find themselves in a lot of trouble at the moment. It is an unusual territory for the side who are so accustomed to winning ICC titles. It’s not been an ideal year for the Aussies in the shortest format of the game. They arrived at the World Cup after a 3-0 series defeat to Pakistan. Australia started off with a win over Ireland before losing to Zimbabwe in their second fixture and to make things even worse, they lost against Sri Lanka.
While many will predict this as Australia’s end at the competition because a Super 8 qualification from here would be nothing short of a miracle.
Let us take a look at how Australia can still qualify for the last eight.
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Win against Oman
The most basic requirement for Australia at this point would be to win against Oman. They don’t just have to win, but have to secure a one sided win in their last group stage fixture to improve their Net run rate (NRR) and boost their qualification chances.
Depend on other results
Australia's fate is no more in their own hands and the other fixture of Group B will decide their future at the competition. They will hope and pray that Zimbabwe lose both of their remaining games against Sri Lanka and Ireland with a huge margin and remain locked at four points with an NRR less than theirs.
However, Ireland could also present a last minute contention if they defeat Zimbabwe and get an NRR better than Australia. If Zimbabwe lose their next two games, then Australia, Ireland and Zimbabwe will be locked at four points and the team with the best NRR will go through.
