Defending champions, West Indies, must win their two remaining matches if they want to make it to the semis of the International Cricket Council (ICC) T20 World Cup.
The men in the maroon outfit will play Sri Lanka tomorrow (Thursday 4th) and Australia on Saturday 6th in Abu Dhabi.
The West Indies team is languishing at No.5 with two points from 3 matches and a Net Run Rate (NNR) of -1.598, a defeat in any of these two matches will see them out of the tournament.
West Indies are currently faced with a number of scenarios ahead of the match against Sri Lanka. The Kieron Pollard-led West Indies team should have a better idea as to how to approach the Sri Lankans who loss to England by 26 runs on Monday.
England topped Group One with 8 points and has a NRR of 3.183 with 1 game in hand.
There is a strong possibility that South Africa, Australia and West Indies could finish the Super 12 stage with 6 points each all of whom are in Group One.
South Africa, yesterday, defeated Bangladesh by 6 wickets with 39 balls. They are on 6 points with a NRR 0.742 and will play England on Saturday. Australia is currently in 3rd place on 4 points with a NRR of -0.627.
Sri Lanka is 4th with a NRR of -0.590 with one match in hand and that’s against West Indies, while Bangladesh, still winless after playing four matches, will play Australia on tomorrow.
In the West Indies opening game of the tournament, they went down to England by 6 wickets after bowled out for 55 in 14.2 overs with Chris Gayle top scoring with 13, no other batter reached double figures.
In their second encounter against South Africa, Temba Bavuma led South Africa team won by 8 wickets with 10 balls remaining. Batting first, the West Indies scored 143 for the loss of 8 wickets, Evin Lewis 56, Kieron Pollard 26.
The West Indies pulled one back when they defeated Bangladesh by 3 runs in their third outing. Scores in that encounter, West Indies 142 for 7, Nicholas Pooran 40 and Roston Chase playing in his first global event made 39, Bangladesh scored 139 for 5.
West Indies squad: Kieron Pollard (captain), Nicholas Pooran (vice-captain), Akeal Hosein, Dwayne Bravo, Roston Chase, Andre Fletcher, Chris Gayle, ShimronHetmyer, Evin Lewis, Jason Holder, Lendl Simmons, Ravi Rampaul, Andre Russell, Oshane Thomas, Hayden Walsh jnr.
Reserves: Darren Bravo, Sheldon Cottrell and Gudakesh Motie.
Sri Lanka squad: Dasun Shanaka (captain), Kusal Janith Perera, Dinesh Chandimal, Dhananjaya De Silva, Pathum Nissanka, Charith Asalanka, Avishka Fernando, Bhanuka Rajapaksa, Chamika Karunaratne, WaninduHasaranga, Dushmantha Chameera, Lahiru Kumara, MaheeshTheekshana, Akila Dananjaya and Binura Fernando.
Meanwhile, two more matches in Group Two will be played tomorrow from 6.00 a.m. New Zealand versus Namibia in Sharjah while India plays Scotland at 10.00 a.m. in Dubai.
The following day, the attention switch to Group one when defending champions, West Indies plays Australia in Abu Dhabi at 10.00 a.m. The English team led by Eoin Morgan, unbeaten thus far in the tournament will take on South Africa in Sharjah.
The semifinal stage of the tournament takes place on Wednesday 10th and Thursday 11th, while the final is schedule for Sunday 14th.
