The Super Eights of the Twenty20 World Cup will begin on Saturday with a match between Pakistan and New Zealand in Colombo. This will be a stage where former champions Australia will not be present. Because the team did not even make it past the group stage. In its place, the tournament's surprise team Zimbabwe will play in a clash of big teams. This is the same team that did not even make it past the qualifying stage in 2024.

Zimbabwe remained unbeaten in an incredible manner and won Group 'B'. In the process, Zimbabwe not only defeated Australia, but also defeated co-hosts Sri Lanka. This is the first time since 2009 that Australia, which has been plagued by injury problems, has failed to reach the second round of the Twenty20 World Cup. The Australian media is currently criticizing the team. 

Their argument is that firstly, the selection of players in the team was not good, and secondly, the preparation of the team was only nominal. Australia, which had reached Pakistan before the World Cup, was defeated 3-0 there. Australia coach Andrew McDonald believes that his players are as shocked as they are after not reaching the Super Eight, but they are ready to learn from this and move forward. 

World number one T20 cricket team India has become a strong candidate to defend the title on their own soil. However, this path will not be easy for India. Because the team will play against 2024 runners-up South Africa in Ahmedabad on Sunday, that too at the 130,000-capacity Narendra Modi Stadium. Both India and South Africa have reached the Super Eight by winning all four matches in the league stage. 

India is currently on a 12-match unbeaten run in the T20 World Cup. Since their semi-final defeat against 2022 winners England, India has not lost a match. Again, no team has won consecutive T20 World Cups nor defended the title on home soil. Therefore, the best wishes of over a billion cricket fans will be on the shoulders of the Indian players. 

But India's performance so far has not been flawless, because the team's upper-order batting has performed poorly. In particular, number one batsman Abhishek Sharma has gone through three consecutive zero scores. There are some weaknesses in India's batting, which is why the team was in a miserable situation in the match against the United States, losing 6 wickets before scoring 77 runs at one point. Later, the match was in India's name. Zimbabwe and West Indies are also in Group ‘A’ of the Super Eight. These two will play in Mumbai on Monday. All the matches in this group will be played in India. Two-time champions West Indies had outplayed England in the group stage and based on their performance so far, this team looks strong. When the T20 World Cup was held in India in 2016, the West Indies were the champions. 

This time, they have won all four matches in the group stage. Zimbabwe will prove to be a strong opponent for the team. Although the match against Ireland was abandoned due to rain, the Zimbabwean team is very enthusiastic at the moment. Group ‘B’ of the Super Eight consists of hosts Sri Lanka, England, Pakistan and New Zealand. 2-2 teams from each group will reach the semi-finals. Out of these, Pakistan was the last team to reach the Super Eight. 

For this, Pakistan defeated Namibia by a margin of more than 100 runs. Captain Salman Agha has called this victory a complete performance. However, this same team was badly defeated by their arch-rivals India. England, who played in Mumbai and Kolkata alternately, faced the only Test team, the West Indies, in the group stage and lost in that. 

The English team led by Harry Brooks had defeated only Nepal, Scotland and debuting Italy. All three of these victories were not impressive. However, England will be happy when they face Sri Lanka in Kandy on Sunday. After last month, they defeated Sri Lanka 3-0 in the T20 series. Sam Curran took a hat-trick in that. It seems that the top order has not been able to shine for England. 

Jos Buttler and Phil Salt have not performed particularly well with the bat. Nor has Brooks himself shown an aggressive game. Sri Lanka's performance has also been mixed, sometimes very good, sometimes bad. Sri Lanka managed to defeat Australia with a brilliant century from Pathum Nissanka, but later they themselves were defeated by Zimbabwe. Nissanka scored 62 runs in that too. 

‘Top Five’ Performance

The Twenty20 World Cup is starting its journey to the last eight from today. So, how were the league stage matches? The five key performances of this stage were as follows:

Sheppard’s hat-trick wicket

West Indies fast bowler Romario Sheppard took the first hat-trick wicket of this World Cup in the match against Scotland. He made the last batsman of the Scottish team his victim. Chasing a target of 183 runs for victory, Scotland had scored 133 runs for the loss of 5 wickets in 16 overs. In that critical situation, captain Sai Hope handed the ball to Sheppard.

The result was amazing. Sheppard took the wickets of Matthew Cross, Michael Leask, Oliver Davidson and Safian Sarri, that too in 5 balls without any runs. Then Scotland reached 133 runs for the loss of 9 wickets in one go. Sheppard took 5 wickets for 20 runs in 3 overs. 

Suryakumar's power

In their first match against America, India was at one point in a miserable situation of 77 runs for the loss of 6 wickets. At that time, captain Suryakumar Yadav came to the crease and 

scored 84 runs in 49 balls with his power. Thus, he more than saved the team. His brilliant performance with the bat captivated the 35,000 spectators at the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai. He completed his half-century in 36 balls. In total, he hit 4 fours and 10 sixes. In the last over of Saurabh Netrawalkar, Suryakumar added 21 runs, with the help of 2 huge sixes and 2 fours. India managed to score 161 runs for the loss of 9 wickets and later managed to defend that score easily. 

Muzarbani's heroism

When Zimbabwe defeated Australia, its hero was fast bowler Blessing Muzarbani. He took 4 wickets for 17 runs. Zimbabwe's victory over a strong opposition team in the group stage was the most unexpected in the T20 World Cup so far. His height is also impressive, 6 feet 8 inches.

He not only dismissed opener Josh English for 8 runs, but also sent Tim David, the symbol of powerful batting, to the pavilion for zero. Matthew Raines tried to save Australia's innings by scoring 65 runs. He also fell victim to Muzarbani. Muzarbani did not stop there, he also took the wicket of Adam Zampa. After that, Australia was all out for 146 runs.

Nissanka's century

Sri Lanka's Pathum Nissanka, while reacting after scoring a magnificent century against Australia, admitted that his performance was like a dream. The 2021 champions were defeated because of his performance. Nissanka needed just 52 balls to reach his century. With the help of that performance, Sri Lanka easily achieved the target of 182 runs in a packed stadium in Kandy. The victory was by 8 wickets. When Sri Lanka reached the victory, there were 2 overs to play. This shows how much fun Sri Lanka's victory itself was. Nissanka's second personal century included 10 fours.