Published: Feb 22, 2016, 03:39 PM (IST)
Edited: Feb 22, 2016, 03:41 PM (IST)
The preliminary rounds of Asia Cup 2016 in Bangladesh are underway. With India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh — the four Asian Test-playing nations — qualifying by default, the fifth spot is up for the grabs. Four teams, no less, lock horns in a round-robin format to join India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, and hosts Bangladesh. With an incredible rise over the past few years, Afghanistan were clear favorites going into the qualifiers. In fact, there have been voices supporting the inclusion of Afghanistan (and Ireland) among Test-playing nations. Unfortunately, things did not pan out well for them: they lost their opening match to UAE by 16 runs before scraping through in a tight match against Oman. UAE won their other match (against Hong Kong) too, which puts them at the top of the table. With a win over Hong Kong, Oman has secured the second spot, ahead of Afghanistan on net run rate. This is how the teams stand, going into the final round of qualifiers:
Points table of Asia Cup 2016 qualifiers
|
Team |
M |
W |
L |
P |
NRR |
|
UAE |
2 |
2 |
0 |
4 |
+0.740 |
|
Oman |
2 |
1 |
1 |
2 |
-0.059 |
|
Afghanistan |
2 |
1 |
1 |
2 |
-0.221 |
|
Hong Kong |
2 |
0 |
2 |
0 |
-0.469 |
What does every team need from here?
UAE are playing Oman. A win will see them through. Since they are way ahead on net run rate, even a narrow defeat should be enough, unless Afghanistan pull off a massive victory over Hong Kong. READ: Asia Cup 2016: Afghanistan may shock big guns
Oman need to beat UAE by a margin big enough to make sure they remain above UAE in net run rate. That will not be enough: Afghanistan need to finish with a net run rate less than UAE’s.
Afghanistan get eliminated if UAE win. If UAE lose to Oman, Afghanistan need to have a net run rate higher than both UAE and Oman. Hong Kong, of course, are already out of the tournament.
