Everybody now knows that net run rate is almost certain to be a huge factor in Group 1 of the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup 2022, but with two must-win rounds of games left it’s too early to focus on only that. England and Australia’s washout in Melbourne has left both teams on three points and with all six teams in Group 1 still able to qualify. Results are still the most important thing, with both teams knowing they will need to win each of their remaining two games to qualify in all likelihood. And yet one eye will have to be kept on the issue of the net run rate. The loss to Ireland and a tentative chase against Afghanistan has left England with a lower run rate than they would have hoped for at this stage. Two no-result games have left Afghanistan behind on points but still in with an outside chance of qualifying if results go their way.

A big win is needed though. With fixtures against Australia and New Zealand to come, Ireland face a tricky task to reach the semi- finals. And they’ll probably need a decent margin of victory in one of those games to overturn the damage of the nine-wicket loss to Sri Lanka. The hammering by New Zealand dented Australia’s NRR right from the off, but Marcus Stoinis’ flurry against Sri Lanka improved it a little. This is a position neither side wanted to be in, with England arriving at this point thanks partly to two games being impacted by rain. “Unfortunately we ve had two games affected by weather,” England captain Jos Buttler said after the points were shared against Australia following the shock loss to Ireland on DLS Method. “You dont want to be involved in those games, but it going to happen wherever you play, you re generally going to be affected by some weather at some point.”

Credit: Independent News Pakistan-INP