While Sri Lanka’s chances of qualifying for the Super 12s now hangs by a thread owing to adverse weather conditions for the next week, here is a look at the past T20 World Cup winners and their overall performance.
Firstly it should be pointed out that in every single T20 World Cup since its inception in 2007, NO winning team has ever had a perfect record in the tournament.
2007 – Champions India lost to New Zealand in the group stage and even had a tie with Pakistan (before super overs were introduced)
2009 – Champions Pakistan lost to England in the first match against England and also to Sri Lanka in the group stage
2010 – Champions England lost to West Indies in the first match
2012 – Champions West Indies lost to Australia in the first match and also to Sri Lanka in the group stage
2014 – Champions Sri Lanka lost to England in the group stage
2016 – Champions West Indies lost to Afghanistan in the group stage
2021 – Champions Australia lost to England in the group stage
As it has already been made clear, no team had a perfect record in the tournament and in three occasions, ended up as champions after losing the first match. T20 Cricket is such where anyone can be the winner on a given day due to the short number of overs and it may help a team adjust to the playing conditions later on. Namibia outclassed Sri Lanka in all departments today and should not be considered a shock win given that they have been a team that qualified to the Super 12s last year.
As far as qualifying is concerned, Namibia will have to win all their matches as well if Sri Lanka have to qualify to the Super 12s after winning all matches. Namibia losing to Netherlands could be detrimental as the Net Run Rate will come into play and we a big win is needed against UAE to cover achieve a positive NRR.
As much as it may seem that Sri Lanka may have an easier Super 12 round against fellow Asian teams, let’s not forget this is not the UAE where Sri Lanka won the Asia Cup, and playing in bigger grounds means that chasing could be a challenge.
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