Scotland have almost knocked England out of the T20 WC

Who would have thought that the defending champions of the last T20 World Cup, along with the runner ups, are on the verge of being knocked out of the group stages of the current edition?

But that’s the current situation in the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup 2024 after Scotland defeated Oman and India defeated Pakistan. 

After their first match against Scotland getting rained out, albeit only after the Scots scored 90 in 10 overs, England had to satisfy themselves with just a single point. In the next game, Australia thrashed them by 36 runs in Barbados. 

Meanwhile, the Scottish batters have ensured their side keeps scaling new heights. Michael Leask ensured that they sailed home comfortably against Namibia by five wickets, and against Oman, George Munsey and Brandon McMullen joined the party and batted with strike rates touching 200 to pulverise Oman by seven wickets.

The scale of their achievements can be understood by the fact that this was the fastest 150+ runs chase in ICC Men’s T20 World Cup history. In this tournament, Scotland batters have also had the fourth-highest attack %, showing yet again that they are a force to reckon with. 

This has created a very interesting scenario in Group B. Scotland are currently leading with five points in three games, and if they win their next encounter, which is a big IF, they’ll qualify to the Super Eights. However, in case they lose, they’ll have to depend on how England do in their remaining games and that’s where Scotland completing the chase in record time against Oman is gonna help them. 

After the win against Oman, their net run rate (NRR) soared to a high of +2.164. Even if England win their remaining two games (against Namibia and Oman) by huge margins, there’s a big gap between their current NRR (-1.800) and Scotland’s NRR that they’ll have to fill. Moreover, they’ll have to hope that Australians defeat Scotland by a huge margin so that their NRR is also dented. 

All these plans can be spoiled if Namibia defeat Australia, but there’s a huge gap between the skill levels and rankings of the two teams and it would have to be a historic effort from the African side to pull this off. Oman, meanwhile, has lost all three of its games and are out of the Super Eights race. 

It’s not only this group that has heated up, with unexpected results throwing the qualification chances of top-ranked teams into jeopardy. In Group C, Afghanistan is flying with two wins in two games, and after their thrashing of the Kiwis, their NRR is +5.225. That gives them a probable chance of making the Super Eight stage if New Zealand loses more games. 

In Group A, USA have pushed Pakistan’s qualification chances into the red zone. The Men in Green have lost both their games  (against the USA and India), and are fourth in the five team group. Similar to England, they not only need to win their remaining games, but also hope that the other team (USA in this case) loses. 

It’s been only nine days since the World Cup started, but the 20-team format has certainly brought more excitement to the tournament. And you know the best part? The heat is only going to rise from here! Fasten your seat belts. 

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