South Africa’s qualification means, three teams – West Indies, England and India fight it out for the remaining two berths in semifinals. While West Indies – who have seven points to their credit – have already played their all games in the round-robin stage, their entry to the next stage now totally relies on the results of the final games of India and England.

The Women in Blue play their last game in the round-robin format against South Africa on March 27, while England play against Bangladesh on the same day.

Interestingly, both India and England are tied at six points with one game each in hand. There is a small margin of 0.01 between the net run-rates (NRR) of the two teams that sees England advance to the fourth spot while India have slipped to number five.

For India, the easiest way to enter the semifinal without any hiccups is to win their last round-robin game against South Africa.

This will help them get to eight points. In that case, either England or West Indies will qualify as the fourth team, depending on the result of the last round-robin game of the defending champions against Bangladesh.

For India, a loss in the match against South Africa can also see them qualify for the semifinals, but in that case, England must lose their game against Bangladesh by a comparatively bigger margin so that their NRR becomes lesser to India’s. Meanwhile, the Women in Blue have to make sure their NRR remains better than that of New Zealand despite the loss in the final game. This is because the White Ferns too have 6 points after beating Pakistan.

‘Rain Rain Please Don’t Go Away’

There is one more way by which India can qualify for the semifinals and for this they will need the help of rain gods. If it rains enough on March 27 so that the India vs South Africa game ends with no result, the Women in Blue will qualify for the semifinals after getting one point from the game.

In such a case, India and West Indies both will be tied on 7 points but better NRR of the 2017 finalists will see them enter the semifinal, irrespective of England vs Bangladesh game result. On the other hand, Windies can qualify only if England lose their last round-robin game, otherwise the 2017 winners will be the fourth team to enter the semifinal.