After India reaching the semi-final of World Cup 2023, South Africa is not lagging far behind as just one victory out of two remaining matches or defeats with low margins will take the team to the knockout stage.
After bad start, Australia has also recovered well and now literally awful performances in remaining three encounters could cause five times world champions to miss the semi-finals.
New Zealand, which started well but falter during the second half of first round, is also in a better position to advance to the next stage due to two more points and a good net run rate as compared to Pakistan and Afghanistan.
Green Shirts ended their miserable four-match losing streak with a thumping win against Bangladesh in a must-win fixture to stay alive in the hunt for a semi-final spot.
With six points from seven games, Pakistan currently occupy the fifth spot in the standings, two points behind Australia and New Zealand.
To move to the next stage, Pakistan will have to win the remaining two league matches against New Zealand and England and that too with a healthy margin to ensure better net run rate in case of ending up on equal points.
In addition to that, Pakistan will have to depend on multiple other outcomes to reach the knockouts.
If New Zealand lose against Sri Lanka, Pakistan can advance to the next stage by winning two remaining matches.
Even in that scenario, Afghanistan can also advance to the next stage by winning remaining three matches or two of them with really big margins.
Though not impossible, still it is highly unlikely as two out of three matches of Afghanistan are against formidable South Africa and Australia.
