The race for the semi-finals of the Women's T20 World Cup 2024 has become very tough and the challenge for Team India has increased. Once again the reason for this has been the New Zealand cricket team, which had defeated Team India in the first match itself. Now once again New Zealand has made the path difficult for the Indian team. In its third match of the group stage, New Zealand defeated Sri Lanka by 8 wickets. With this victory, New Zealand now has 4 points equal to Team India, due to which Team India will need to win against defending champion Australia in its last match at any cost. At the same time, Sri Lanka, which was already out of the tournament, also lost its fourth and last match.

New Zealand's easy win

In this match played in Sharjah on Saturday 12th October, Sri Lanka batted first but the Asian champion team lost its momentum after a fast start. With the dismissal of star captain Chamri Atapattu in the 14th over, Sri Lanka's hopes of a big score were also dashed. When Atapattu was out, Sri Lanka's score was only 74 runs. Sri Lankan batsmen struggled to play fast against the tight bowling of New Zealand. Atapattu scored the maximum 35 runs but spent 41 balls. The top-3 batsmen of the team scored 61 runs but for this they spent 85 balls. Still, somehow this team was able to reach the score of 115 runs.

New Zealand also had trouble getting off to a fast start and did not hit any boundaries for 4 overs. Still, Suzie Bates and Georgia Plimmer did not lose patience and then the pace of runs increased from the fifth over. Together, both of them gave the team a start of 49 runs which made it certain that victory would be achieved. However, Sri Lanka also did not allow New Zealand to reach the target easily and it was only in the 18th over that New Zealand was able to win the match by 8 wickets. For that, Plimmer played an inning of 53 runs in 44 balls, while Emily Karr also scored 34 runs.

Team India's tension increased

This victory of New Zealand has made the path of Team India a little difficult. After this victory, both the teams have 4-4 points and only one match each is left. The difference lies here. In its last match, Team India has to face the current champion and the strongest team Australia, which has defeated every team including New Zealand very easily. New Zealand will face Pakistan. Now Team India will have to win this match at any cost so that it can make it to the semi-finals. If New Zealand had lost this match, they would have had only 2 points, and their already poor net run rate would have worsened. In such a situation, he would have needed a big win against Pakistan in the last match. In such a situation, even if Team India had lost to Australia by a small margin in its last match, it would have had more chances of reaching the semi-finals. Now nothing less than victory is important for him because even a defeat by a small margin can take him out of the tournament.