T20 World Cup | Can India still qualify for the semi-finals? The answer lies in Afghanistan’s hands

T20 World Cup | Virat Kohli scores 17-ball 9 as India surrender to New Zealand once again

India were one of the firm favourites to win the T20 World Cup but one and a half games later, they are on the brink of getting knocked out of the tournament without making it to the semi-finals. After a disastrous performance against Pakistan in the first game, India looked shell-shocked with the bat in their hands and could not bat with inter in the first few over. The new opener Ishan Kishan and KL Rahul tried to gauge the pace and nature of the pitch against the combination of Tim Southee and Trent Boult, but could not make any use of their time and left India in trouble. Virat Kohli, who demoted himself to the number four position behind Rahul, Kishan and Rohit Sharma, also could not get going from the word go and struggled helplessly. None of the Indian batsmen batted with intent and their misery was on full-on display against New Zealand and they were reduced to a mere 110 runs in 20 overs and a lot of it came from the bat of Ravindra Jadeja in the last two overs. Trent Boult, with a bowling figure of 20 runs for three wickets in his four overs and Ish Sodhi, with a bowling figure of 17 runs for two wickets from his four overs that included the big wickets of Rohit and Kohli were the main destructor. However, Mitchell Santner’s phenomenal control with the ball could not be downplayed and he asphyxiated the Indian batting lineup to give just 15 runs in his four overs.

T20 World Cup | ENG vs SL: Lankan fate hanging by a thread as Morgan’s men eye semi-final berth

The Sri Lankan team snatched defeat out of the jaws of victory as Lahiru Kumara didn’t bowl even a single wide yorker or short ball to South African David Miller. The left hander hit two sixes on the first two balls of the 20th over to lead his team to victory when 15 were required of the last over. This was how their last match ended and even after a hattrick from Wanindu Hasaranga, they were not able to win a game that they should have. On the other hand, England were clinical as ever as they beat their arch-rivals Australia by eight wickets and chased down a paltry target of 126 in only 11.4 overs to earn not just a win, but to stamp authority that they mean business and they are the best in the business. Now, these two teams will face each other at Sharjah with very different goals in a match that would clear a lot of things in Group 1 or the group of death. What's at stake? For Sri Lanka, who have one win from three games and are to face West Indies in their last game, it is a chance to keep their hopes of qualification to the semi-finals alive. If they win this game and given the fact that Australia have to face Bangladesh and West Indies in their next two games and South Africa would be up against England and Bangladesh, the Lankan Lions could fancy themselves remaining in the mix as their net run rate isn’t that bad either. The victory of Sri Lanka could also prove that England are beatable and would give a lot of confidence not only to South Africa who are supposed to win against England to be in the fray for a berth in the semifinals but even to Group 2 teams who might be facing the English in the semis or the final. On the other hand, England would be looking to keep the momentum and with this win qualify for the semi-finals before even facing South Africa, which could be a difficult game at Sharjah. What needs to change? The only team that would be looking to change things are Sri Lanka. They have a lot of problems in batting and to name a few are Avishka Fernando and Kusal Perera. Even the form of skipper Dasun Shanaka is not that good, but he with his ability to bowl and also the mind to lead the nation, more than covers up for his lack of form. However, after Perera’s innings against Australia, he hasn’t been able to get going. Fernando on the other hand has failed in all games, even being unable to cross the double-digit mark in the last five innings. Thus he needs to be replaced and Dhananjaya de Silva, a more than capable enough batter at number four and also a good enough off-spin bowler, should be given a chance to play in the World Cup. Even Dinesh Chandimal can be given a chance at the opening position in place of Perera. For England, they need to test their bench strength and for once would like to chase something more competitive and even 150 could be competitive at Sharjah. Thus instead of getting the bad day in the semis or against South Africa, Eoin Morgan wouldn’t mind getting a tough game against Sri Lanka and then scaling through it, much like they got a bad game against India at the league in the 2019 ODI World Cup. England vs Sri Lanka: Match Details Match Number - 29 Date and Time: November 01, 2021, 07:30 pm IST, 06:00 pm Local, 02:00 pm GMT Venue: Sharjah Cricket Stadium, Sharjah Broadcast and Livestream: Star Sports and Hotstar Pitch Report The pitch at Sharjah has come back to be the same old trying wicket for the batters as it was during the IPL. Most of the matches here have been played in the daytime and at day, a score of anything above 150 is getting difficult to chase. However, at night chasing could get a little easy in conditions that might have dew and the ball would skid on. Weather Forecast The temperature at the stadium will fall from 31-degree Celsius at 06:00 pm to 27-degree Celsius by 09:00 pm and similarly, the humidity will increase from 57% to 71% meaning that there would be dew in the wicket and would help the team batting second. Team News England For England, there is a chance to try out the rest of the people, but as far as Morgan’s philosophy is concerned, he doesn’t believe in easy games and if his top XI is fit, he wouldn’t want to change it. Probable XI Jason Roy, Jos Buttler (wk), Dawid Malan, Jonny Bairstow, Eoin Morgan (c), Liam Livingstone, Moeen Ali, Chris Woakes, Chris Jordan, Adil Rashid, Tymal Mills Sri Lanka For Sri Lanka, they might think about replacing Kumara, which wouldn’t be a good call. But they must replace Avishka Fernando and bring in de Silva. Probable XI Kusal Perera (wk), Pathum Nissanka, Charith Asalanka, Dhananjaya de Silva, Bhanuka Rajapaksa, Dasun Shanaka (c), Wanindu Hasaranga, Chamika Karunaratne, Dushmantha Chameera, Maheesh Theekshana, Lahiru Kumara CE XI Fantasy team Wicketkeepers Jos Buttler, Jonny Bairstow Batters Jason Roy, Pathum Nissanka, Charith Asalanka All-rounders Liam Livingstone, Wanindu Hasaranga Bowlers Chris Woakes, Tymal Mills, Dushmantha Chameera, Maheesh Theekshana Vice-Captain Wanindu Hasaranga Captain Jos Buttler

T20 World Cup | India suffer another top-order collapse

There was no end to India’s misery in their second game of the tournament against New Zealand as they slipped with another top-order collapse by the end of the powerplay. They made a change at the top of the order in the form of Ishan Kishan, who played the game in place of Suryakumar Yadav. Rohit Sharma was slanted to the number three in the hope of extracting a blistering start from the young left-hander. The move could also be seen as protecting Rohit Sharma from Trent Boult’s swing at the top but neither of those objectives were fulfilled. Kishan was not aggressive from the word go and was dismissed just when he started to take the attack to the opposition. At the other end, KL Rahul looked awfully out of touch and laboured for a couple of boundaries. However, he too was the victim of a catch right on the boundary line and Indians were once again rocked with two wickets without too many runs on the board. Rohit Sharma tried to up the ante against Adam Milne after the pacer dropped him on the very first ball on the fine-leg boundary. He and Rahul took two fours and one six off Milne before Ish Sodhi came to send him back to the pavilion. The Indian-origin leg spinner was not done for the night and got the big fish Virat Kohli when the Indian captain played an uncharacteristic slog out of sheer desperation. India have already lost a game against Pakistan in the tournament and a defeat against New Zealand would almost knock them out of the ground.

T20 World Cup | Hamid Hassan’s yorkers dismantle Namibia as Afghanistan record huge win

If the competition would be about Net Run Rate (NRR), Afghanistan would be winning it hands down. After defeating Scotland by 130 runs in their first match, the Afghans registered yet another huge victory as they downed Namibia by 62 runs. Hamid Hassan, who played in place of injured Mujeeb-Ur-Rahman was the hero of the game for the Afghans as his deadly yorkers saw the end of three of Namibia’s most dangerous batters in skipper Gerhard Erasmus, David Wiese and JJ Smit. Chasing a target of 161, Namibia didn’t really have a good start as they lost the opener, Craig Williams, in the very first over of the game to Naveen-Ul-Haq. Soon Michael Van Lingen departed as well, becoming the second scalp of Naveen. Nicol Loftie-Eaton, who did well with the ball in the first innings, wasn’t able to reflect it with the bat as he got bowled trying to hit a ball out of the park off the bowling of Gulbadin Naib. Rashid Khan had to do very little as Zane Green tried to ramp him and got bowled on the very first ball of his spell. After this dismissal, the best pairing for Namibia was crease as David Wiese partnered Erasmus. The two were going well and had added 20 runs for the fifth wicket at run a ball. But then came Hassan with his brutal toe crushing yorkers at a medium pace. He first bowled Erasmus and then in the same over removed another dangerous batter in JJ Smit with bouncer brushing his gloves and going into the gloves of Mohammad Shahzad. From there on there was no way that Namibia were going to chase down 105 from 55 balls and it was made sure as Jan Frylinck, the last batting option was also removed in the 15th over as Naveen picked Frylinck as his third wicket. From there on it was just formalities and they were completed as Hamid removed Wisese and Namibia played out the 20 overs. Earlier in the day, after winning the toss, Afghan skipper Mohammad Nabi decided to bat first and his decision was backed by a good opening partnership by Shahzad and Hzratullah Zazai as they added 53 for the first wicket. While Rahmanullah Gurbaz and Najibullah Zadran failed, Asghar Afghan who was playing his last game for the country, scored 31 off 23 and with Nabi’s unbeaten 32 off 17 and Shahzad’s important 45, Afghanistan got past 160 at the loss of five wickets. Leg spinner Loftie-Eaton picked two wickets for Namibia and finished with career-best figures of 2/21. Afghanistan will now face India and New Zealand in its next two games which would also be must-wins for them to qualify for the semi-finals. Namibia will take on group leaders Pakistan on Tuesday.