State of Play: Zimbabwe through, Australia miss Super 8 bus

On the 11th day of the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup, New Zealand confirmed their spot in the Super 8 with a win against Canada, whereas former champions Australia missed out on a place after Zimbabwe picked key points in their washout against Ireland.

Qualified

India: 6 points in Group A, +3.050 NRR

Co-hosts India marched into the Super Eight with a comprehensive 61-run win over Pakistan in Colombo on Sunday. They are unbeaten in the tournament so far, winning three out of three.

Bidding for their third T20 World Cup title, India opened the 2026 edition against the USA. It wasn’t all smooth sailing at the beginning, as the defending champions were reduced to 77/6. Captain Suryakumar Yadav dug them out of trouble with an unbeaten 84 to lead the team to a 29-run win.

India’s depth of talent has been evident, as at least one player has stepped up and taken responsibility. While an all-round show by Hardik Pandya helped them to a 93-run win over Namibia, Ishan Kishan’s swashbuckling 77 took the game away from Pakistan.

All the pieces are clicking into place for the defending champions.

Sri Lanka: 6 points in Group B, +2.462 NRR

What a tournament so far for the co-hosts! After launching their campaign with a 20-run triumph over Ireland in Colombo, they have gone from strength-to-strength.

Off the back of Pavan Rathnayake’s 60 off 28 balls and Kusal Mendis’ 61 off 45, they surged to a powerful 105-run win over Oman in Kandy.

But it’s their most recent work that has really caught the world’s attention. At Kandy for a second straight contest, the home side displayed pure dominance against their higher-ranked counterparts Australia. They made light work of the target (182) that was set for them, led by opener Pathum Nissanka’s emphatic 100* off 52 balls. He was unstoppable, steering Sri Lanka to an eight-wicket victory, with two overs spare, sealing their Super Eight qualification.

West Indies: 6 points in Group C, +1.820 NRR

West Indies’ power-packed batting line-up was the talk of the town when the team arrived for the Men’s T20 World Cup 2026. And the batters have stood up to the scrutiny so far, leading their team to three successive wins.

They opened with a 35-run victory over Scotland and sealed qualification with a dominant nine-wicket win over Nepal. But their most impressive performance was against England. Sherfane Rutherford led the charge as the team piled on 196/6. West Indies then dismissed England for 166 on a good batting track to complete a statement showing.

The West Indian pacers have also made an impact, with Romario Shepherd claiming 5/20 against Scotland and Jason Holder earning 4/27 against Nepal.

The last time that a Men’s T20 World Cup was held in India, West Indies, led by Daren Sammy, defied expectations to capture the title. Sammy is back at the helm, as a coach this time, and is hoping for an encore.

South Africa: 6 points in Group D, +1.477 NRR

South Africa scored a commanding seven-wicket win over New Zealand on Saturday, courtesy of a terrific 86 from their skipper Aiden Markram off just 44 deliveries, to continue their unbeaten run.

Aiming to go one better than their runners-up finish in the previous edition, the Proteas opened their 2026 campaign against Canada. It was a dominant start, as the batting unit fired in unison to post 213 on the board. Markram led from the front with a fluent half-century, while David Miller and Tristan Stubbs provided the late acceleration. Lungi Ngidi then starred with the ball, claiming four wickets to seal a comfortable 57-run victory.

South Africa’s resilience was tested in their second outing against Afghanistan, a repeat of the 2024 T20 World Cup semi-final. The contest turned into a thriller, with Afghanistan forcing two Super Overs after a spirited fightback led by Rahmanullah Gurbaz. The Proteas, however, held their nerve to clinch a dramatic four-run win in the second Super Over.

With both their firepower and composure on display, South Africa look well-set for the challenges ahead.

England: 6 points in Group C, +0.201 NRR

England are living dangerously in the tournament. After opening the tournament with a too-narrow-for-comfort win over Nepal, they survived a high-scoring thriller against Italy on Monday to close out the group stage.

In the four matches so far, their most comprehensive performance was a five-wicket victory over Scotland.

England were also outplayed in the marquee Group C clash against the West Indies.

However, they will take heart from the performance of their all-rounders Sam Curran and Will Jacks against Italy. England’s batting depth came to the fore in Kolkata, as they recovered from 105/5 to post a massive 202/7 on the board. Those extra runs at the death proved to be critical as Italy went down fighting by 24 runs.

New Zealand: 6 points in Group D, +1.227 NRR

Despite losing to South Africa earlier in the tournament, New Zealand had beaten Afghanistan and UAE on either side of that loss.

All they needed was to beat Canada to secure their spot in the Super Eight.

The Canadians did give them a scare with 19-year-old Yuvraj Samra hitting a 58-ball century, and followed it up by dismissing both Kiwi openers in quick succession. But Rachin Ravindra and Glenn Phillips played blistering knocks to send New Zealand through to the next stage.

Zimbabwe: 5 points in Group B, +1.984 NRR

For the first time in T20 World Cups, Zimbabwe are through to the second stage. They progressed to the Super Eight after their match against Ireland was abandoned due to rain on Tuesday.

It was their surprise 23-run win over Australia that had pushed them in pole position ahead of the match. They had began their campaign with a confident eight-wicket win over Oman and will be looking to carrying the momentum into the next stage of the tournament.

Zimbabwe will take on co-hosts Sri Lanka in their final group game on Thursday.

In the mix

USA: 4 points in Group A, 0.788 NRR

USA has wrapped up their matches in the group stage, but now they wait and hope. In their four games in Group A, they fell short against India despite a valiant performance, particularly with Shadley van Schalkwyk taking 4/25 against the defending champions.

They lost to Pakistan by 32 runs, but followed it up with a strong performance in their 93-run win over the Netherlands. In their final group game, led by Sanjay Krishnamurthi’s unbeaten 68 off 33, they beat Namibia by 31 runs.

Van Schalkwyk is currently the top wicket-taker in the tournament, with 13 scalps.

Netherlands: 2 points in Group A, -1.352 NRR

The Dutch will know their fate perhaps an hour before they play their final Group A match on February 18.

They will hope for winless Namibia to hand Pakistan a heavy loss, while the Netherlands pull off a big upset win over the defending champions to get up on net-run-rate. Either way, they will rue that near-miss against Pakistan in the tournament opener, where the Dutch grabbed five wickets for 16 runs, putting the rival’s chase in jeopardy at 114/7, before the 2009 champions edged to a three-wicket win.

Pakistan: 4 points in Group A, -0.139 NRR

Pakistan’s qualification into the Super 8 is in their own hands. A win in their last Group A game will confirm their spot in the next stage. But a loss will mean they will have to rely on old-rivals India to beat the Dutch.

It has been a patchy performance by the Men in Green so far, but there’s no better time to pick themselves up than now.

Out of contention

Australia: 2 points in Group B, +0.414 NRR

Australia’s troubled campaign ended with a whimper as Zimbabwe snatched the final qualification spot in Group B.

Injury woes set the team back even before they arrived in India and Sri Lanka. However, it’s been a disastrous last few weeks for the 2021 winners, getting swept 3-0 by Pakistan before the T20 World Cup and now suffered defeats against Zimbabwe and Sri Lanka, putting their fate out of their hands.

They will end the campaign with a match against Oman on Friday.

Italy: 2 points in Group C, -0.588 NRR

Italy qualified for a cricket World Cup, across formats, for the first time last year. The team that consists of players of Australian, South African, Pakistani, Sri Lankan and Indian heritage though put on a show. The loss to Scotland aside, Italy stormed past Nepal before running two-time winners England close. They finish a campaign, which has earned them many admirers, against West Indies.

Namibia: 0 points in Group A, -2.443 NRR

Namibia have had their moments, like a promising start in the big run chase against the USA, but have been unable to press on to victory. With defeats against USA, India and the Netherlands, they are set to exit after the group stage.

Oman: 0 points in Group B, -4.546 NRR

It has been another tough campaign for the Asian side. Placed in Group B, they began the tournament with an eight-wicket defeat to Zimbabwe, suffered a 105-run defeat and were outplayed by Ireland. They failed to win a single match during the 2024 T20 World Cup group stage too.

Nepal: 0 points in Group C, -1.942

Nepal started the tournament with much promise as they took former champions England to the brink. Chasing 184, the Asian team were within one shot of victory, but finally ended at 180/6 in their 20 overs.

After the bright start, Nepal have tapered off. They were handed a 10-wicket defeat by tournament debutants Italy. A loss against West Indies knocked them out of Super Eight contention.

Scotland: 2 points in Group C, 0.359 NRR

Scotland were late entrants to this T20 World Cup as replacements for Bangladesh. They started their campaign with a 35-run defeat to the West Indies but bounced back with a commanding 73-run win over Italy.

The five-wicket loss to England though meant their hopes of progressing hung by a thread. It all ended when England beat Italy. They have a chance to finish their campaign on a high when they take on Nepal.

Canada: 0 points in Group D, -1.865 NRR

A valiant and history-making century from Yuvraj Samra gave Canada some hope in their must-win match against New Zealand, but the Kiwis picked up an eight-wicket win.

That loss meant that Canada’s campaign would end in the group stage of the tournament.

Afghanistan: 2 points in Group D, -0.215 NRR

The Group of Death was bound to have at least one full-member team eliminated in the group stage of the 2026 T20 World Cup. It turned out to be the 2024 World Cup semi-finalists Afghanistan.

Defeat to New Zealand and the agonizing super over loss to South Africa meant that the Afghans’ fate was no longer in their hand. With New Zealand beating Canada, the spirited Asian side are no longer in contention of Super 8.

UAE: 2 points in Group D, -0.797 NRR

Group D’s top two teams were decided well before UAE could play their last match against South Africa. After losing to New Zealand in their opening match, they had raised hopes of a comeback with a five-wicket win over Canada before a narrow loss to Afghanistan ended their chances.

Ireland: 3 points in Group B, +0.150 NRR

Ireland’s only win in three matches came against Oman. They held on to a glimmer of a hope going into their final group match against Zimbabwe, but their campaign ended when the match was washed out, leaving them stranded at three points.