Here’s how Pakistan can qualify for the semi-finals

A win for Pakistan will make them level on points (11) and wins (5) with NZ, but a loss will knock them out of the race.

With England‘s big win over New Zealand, the hosts become the third team to book a spot in the ICC Cricket World Cup 2019 semi-final after Australia and India. However, despite their third straight loss, New Zealand are still in pole position to grab the final spot, owing to their superior run-rate.

WC 2019 Points table | WC 2019 Fixtures

Pakistan, the only other team in fray for the semi-final spot, has one game left against Bangladesh while New Zealand’s league stages have come to an end. A win for Pakistan will make them level on points (11) and wins (5) with NZ, but a loss will knock them out of the race.

But, it’s not that straight forward for the 1992 World Cup champs as they run-rate is  -0.792 and NZ’s is at  +0.175 -a huge margin, and for Pakistan to overturn the run-rate, they will have to beat Bangladesh by at least 308 runs.

The trouble here is, the largest victory margin in ODI history has been 290 runs when New Zealand scored 402/2 and then bundled out Ireland for 112. Pakistan need to do better and set the record for the largest victory margin in terms of runs.

And, if they lose the toss and Bangladesh opt to bat first, the tournament is all but over for Pakistan as they overturn the run-rate enough to better NZ’s while chasing.

For Pakistan to qualify:

Bat first:
– Score at least 308 runs, dismiss Ban for 0 & win by 308 runs. If they score <308, they can't qualify.
– Score 350, win by 312 runs
– Score 400, win by 316 runs

Bat second:
Can't qualify.

No team has won by 300+ runs in ODI history!!

— Bharath Seervi (@SeerviBharath) July 3, 2019

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