Pakistan's far-fetched hope of making it to the World Cup 2023's semifinals was devastated when England captain Jos Buttler won the toss and elected to bat first in their last league match at the Eden Gardens stadium in Kolkata on November 11, Saturday.
Now, bowling first Pakistan have an impossible task to make it to the top four spot.
Here's the scenario:
If England score - Win inside
20 - 1.3 overs
50 - 2 overs
100 - 2.5 overs
150 - 3.4 overs
200 - 4.3 overs
300 - 6.1 overs
Even the favourable toss outcome wouldn't have made things easier for Pakistan.
Here's the scenario had Pakistan batted first:
If Pakistan score - Restrict England to
300 - 13 runs
350 - 63 runs
400 - 112 runs
450 - 162 runs
500 - 211 runs
If Pakistan manage to beat England they would end up garnering 10 points in nine matches to go level with New Zealand in the standings. But since New Zealand have a much superior Net Run Rate, Pakistan's chances of qualifying for the semis are already diminished.
Meanwhile, it is also mandatory for England to win this match as their Champions Trophy 2025's qualification hangs in balance
Here's England's Champions Trophy 2025 qualification scenarios:
- Beat Pakistan (6 points) & hope at least one of Bangladesh or Netherlands lose their final game (4 points)
- If they lose to Pakistan (4 points) & they would need at least one of Bangladesh or Netherlands lose their final game (4 points)
- If England lose to Pakistan and both Bangladesh and Netherlands win their respective final games, England cannot qualify.
- For England's NRR to fall below that of Bangladesh's current NRR (the next best placed team on NRR among the four contenders), they have to lose by around 140 runs.
Meanwhile after losing the toss Babar said,"We wanted to bat first, but toss is not in our hands. We have good bowlers and we would look to bowl them out cheaply. We have one change - Hasan Ali is not playing and Shadab Khan comes in his place. We are looking forward to Fakhar's batting. We will try our best."
England captain Buttler said," We gonna bat first. Looks a good wicket, looks a bit dry and we want to make first use of it. We are going with the same team today. It's always good to break a losing streak. We would look to try and do justice to ourselves. (On David Willey) Emotional day for him, he has been great for us. So, we talked about trying to enjoy it and take it all in."
England's Playing XI: Jonny Bairstow, Dawid Malan, Joe Root, Ben Stokes, Harry Brook, Jos Buttler(w/c), Moeen Ali, Chris Woakes, David Willey, Gus Atkinson, Adil Rashid.
Pakistan's Playing XI: Abdullah Shafique, Fakhar Zaman, Babar Azam(c), Mohammad Rizwan(w), Saud Shakeel, Iftikhar Ahmed, Agha Salman, Shadab Khan, Shaheen Afridi, Mohammad Wasim Jr, Haris Rauf.
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