Antigua: India has ambitious expectations to take their uninterrupted victory series in the current 2024 T20 World Cup match today against Bangladesh at Sir Vivian Richards Stadium in North Sound, Antigua. This will be the second match of India in the super eight round after they posted a comfortable win over the Afghanistan side. They are aiming to make it to the semifinals just as they did during the previous T20 World Cup tournament.
In the past, some of India’s T20 encounters with Bangladesh were always very competitive, though overall, India had the upper hand over them, having won twelve out of their one T20I matches. Besides, India has the upper hand over Bangladesh as the latter has been beaten by India in all the four previous T20 World Cup meetings they had. The two last bilateral series were played two years ago in Australia, where the Bangla team suffered a five-run defeat to India through the DLS method after K L Rahul’s direct hit for run-out Liton Das.
The current Indian cricket team, the form and the conditions in Antigua make them clear favourites for the game. However, the weather forecast for the city predicts thunderstorms, particularly around the match start time of 10:30 AM local time. The expected precipitation is between 46% and 51% in the early hours, while the forecast for the rest of the day is relatively less.
This forecast does not rule out a complete washout, so we must conclude that the game might be affected by rain rather than washed out. This was going to obviously play a lot on the toss-winning side since there is no reserve day available for any match in the Super Eight phase for the T20 World Cup 2024. A washout situation would, however, imply a scenario whereby both the India cricket team and the Bangladesh cricket team would be awarded one point each.
Doing this would place India at the top of the table, though it may harm their semifinal prospects. Depending upon the outcome of the match between India and Australia to be played on the final day of the Super Eight and the other match between Bangladesh and Afghanistan, a big win for either side or the latter could have a bearing on the semifinal positioning as far as net run rate is concerned.
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