Women's World Cup: Decoding race for remaining semi-final spot
What's the story
The 2025 ICC Women's World Cup is heating up with Australia, South Africa, and England securing their spots in the top four. However, the remaining semi-final berth is still up for grabs among India, New Zealand, Sri Lanka, and Pakistan. After 21 matches in the round-robin stage of the tournament, Bangladesh are the only team to have officially been knocked out of the final four race. Here we decode the qualification scenarios..
#1
India have fate in their own hands
India's campaign has been marred by three consecutive defeats, but they still control their own destiny. The team, which owns four points, has two remaining matches against New Zealand and Bangladesh. Winning both will guarantee a semi-final spot for India. Even if they lose to Bangladesh after beating New Zealand, and as long as their net run rate stays better than the other teams, they can qualify with six points in hand.
#2
Can New Zealand go through?
New Zealand's next match against India is a virtual knockout. If they win both their remaining matches, they secure a spot in the semi-finals. Like India, NZ also own four points. Even if they lose to India but beat England in their final league fixture, qualification is still possible. In this case, they would need India, Sri Lanka, and Pakistan to stay behind them in terms of net run rate. NZ's current NRR is -0.245.
#3
Sri Lanka are still alive
Sri Lanka, with four points from six matches but a negative net run rate of -1.035, still has a faint hope of going through. As India are way ahead of them in term of NRR, the Lankans need Harmanpreet Kaur's team to lose both their remaining games and for England to beat NZ. Besides, SL need to beat Pakistan in their final league game by a margin that makes sure their NRR is better than that of NZ.
#4
What about Pakistan?
With two points from five games and an NRR of -1.887, Pakistan are at the bottom of the table. Hence, they need to win their remaining games against South Africa and Sri Lanka by massive margins. Besides, they need both India and NZ to lose at least one of their remaining two games. In this scenario, Pakistan can go at par with other teams in terms of points, and it will boil down to the NRR.