Indian women's cricket team players during the Women's T20 World Cup.
Credit: X/@JayShah
Though India's chances of making it to the the semifinals of the Women's T20 World Cup look slim, it is not all over yet.
Since their heavy loss to New Zealand, India's net run rate (NRR) is very low with it being at -1.217 at the time of writing. NRR will likely be extremely important if India were to qualify for the semis.
While their victory against arch rivals Pakistan gave India some momentum, their slow approach to chase down the target meant they were unable to capitalise on the opportunity to boost their NRR.
India now need to win their remaining group matches, with a good, dominant performance being the need of the hour. Here is how Group A looks like prior to the India-Sri Lanka match:
Credit: ICC
For India to qualify, they will need to beat Sri Lanka by a large margin, and to do the same against the mighty Aussies.
Then they will have to hope that both of Sri Lanka and Australia beat New Zealand and Pakistan respectively. If results go their way, then, prior to the New Zealand-Pakistan match, the table will look as follows:
Australia/India - 6 points
New Zealand/Pakistan/Sri Lanka - 2 points
If India loses to either Australia or Sri Lanka in the above scenario, then they will need a superior NRR than the winner of the New Zealand-Pakistan match.
Should Pakistan beat Australia, India must hope New Zealand lose to Sri Lanka, and then go on to beat Pakistan. And vice versa if New Zealand beats Sri Lanka.
Again here, India will finish with 6 points, along side Australia, and both New Zealand and Pakistan will finish with 4 points.
If India loses to either Australia or Sri Lanka in the above scenario, then they will need a superior NRR to both New Zealand and Pakistan in order to qualify.
If both New Zealand and Pakistan beat Australia and Sri Lanka respectively, India will need to win both their matches too, and gain a superior NRR to the winner of the New Zealand-Pakistan match.
If India lose a single match in this scenario, they are out of the tournament.
India's defeat to New Zealand has put them in a difficult situation, where every game is a must win, and also needs them to dominate their opponents.
Can Harmanpreet and co come out of this tricky set of fixtures with a semifinal berth? Or will the maiden ICC trophy for the Indian women's team remain elusive?