Why South Africa Are All But Out of The 2019 ICC World Cup

Why South Africa are very very unlikely to make the semis from here.

(Photo: AP)

New Zealand captain Kane Williamson struck an unbeaten century as the Kiwis virtually knocked South Africa out of the ongoing 2019 ICC World Cup with a four-wicket victory on Wednesday.

Chasing a target of 242 in 49 overs in a rain-truncated match, New Zealand recovered from a mini slump at 137/5, with the help of a 91-run stand between Williamson (106* off 138) and Collin de Grandhomme (60 off 47), to reach home with three balls to spare.

With two points from the win, New Zealand have now risen to the top spot in the points table with 9 points from 5 games. South Africa, however, are at the other end of the table following their fourth loss of the tournament in 6 matches.

Why South Africa Can’t Make Semis

With the format of this World Cup allowing each of the 10 teams to face all 9 competitors, South Africa have played 6 teams so far with just 3 more group stage matches left.

Who’s next? Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Australia.

Now even if Faf du Plessis’s squad were to defy their form of the tournament so far and go onto beat each of the 3 upcoming opponents, they would be able to culminate a total of 9 points at the end of group stage. The problem though is that it might not be enough to overtake the rest of the teams, or at least the ones that are already at the cusp of breaking the 10-point mark in the standings.

Table-toppers New Zealand already have 9 points and they are yet to play four more matches- against West Indies, Pakistan, Australia and England. So if they were to win even one, they would have 11 points and finish ahead of South Africa.

Similar situation with England. They have 8 points from 5 games and are yet to play Sri Lanka, Australia, India and New Zealand. Wouldn't be too off the mark to expect the top-ranked ODI team to win at least one of those matches and collect 2 points to take their tally to 10, thus overtaking the 9 South Africa could make (under extraordinary circumstances).

Next in the top 4 right now are Australia and India. Both are on 7 points each with Australia yet to play Bangladesh, England, New Zealand and South Africa! India have 5 matches in hand with Afghanistan, West Indies, England, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka awaiting them in the group stage.

With both teams needing just 2 wins to get to 10 points, it would need a massive miracle and a bigger turnaround in the South African team’s form for the Proteas to make the cut for the final four this time around.