Here’s our regular update on the competition, featuring a look at the Matchday 4 games that took place over Gameweek 34. We also have some fun handing out some Matchday Awards and a look ahead to Matchday 5. Please use this article for all tournament chat.
MATCHDAY 4 RESULTS
The final Matchday 4 results have been updated in the Cup spreadsheet.
Australia and England have qualified for the knockouts from Group A to join West Indies and South Africa, who had already secured qualification in Matchday 3. The good news is everyone still stands a chance to qualify for the knockouts.
Congratulations to all the victorious teams and a reminder to those that lost that everyone is still in this hunt for glory.
MATCHDAY 4 AWARDS
Sachin Tendulkar Award for the best batting lineup – AUS with 899 runs
Salma Hayek Overnight Award for the player of the week – Newman with 109 runs from AUS
Hot Urine Treatment for the highest run scorer on the bench – Emperikal with 93 runs from PAK
SAF Management Award – manager with highest manager rating – Innsie of NZL, Zep of AUS and Ellipsis of ENG with rating of 99
Dalglish Differential: manager with lowest manager rating – Disable of SRI with rating of 93
Jose Mourinho Award for the best pressers before Matchday 4 – Sheikh Badger (UAE) with +18
Andrew Symonds Award for the best sledging (Social Media) – Australia and New Zealand
MATCHDAY 5 PREVIEW
Gameweek 35′s fixtures are as follows:
Group A
Sri Lanka vs Australia
Bangladesh vs England
Scotland vs New Zealand
Group B
South Africa vs West Indies
UAE vs India
Pakistan vs Ireland
Keep track of how your team progresses over the Gameweek via the Live ScoreCard Tool
KNOCKOUT STAGES PREVIEW *
Going into the final matchday of the group stages, every team still stands a chance of qualification for the knockouts. Upon popular request, here are some of the permutations of qualification for each team – it could well go down to Net Run Rate (NRR) eventually.
*Disclaimer – There may be an error or two below that I have ignored in a haste. Apologies in advance.
Group A
England and Australia have qualified for the knockout stages with 6 points each. A win for Bangladesh or New Zealand will mean they qualify as well.
Bangladesh are in good position and may be able to qualify even with a loss, as long as their NRR is better than the team/s that end up on 4 points. Their worst case scenario is with them losing their game and NZ and SL both winning their games – in that scenario, there will then be a good chance of them being eliminated.
New Zealand find themselves in a decent position and may be able to qualify even with a loss, as long as they do not lose comprehensively AND Sri Lanka lose their game as well. Their worst case scenario is with them losing the game and Sri Lanka winning, which would mean they are likely to fall back on NRR.
Sri Lanka could still qualify if they win their must-win game against Australia AND one of New Zealand (preferably) or Bangladesh slip up. If Bangladesh slips up, then it will come down to the NRR between the two teams.
Scotland have a small chance of qualification. They need to defeat New Zealand in their must-win clash comprehensively enough for their Net Run Rate to improve, and then hope for other teams to slip up in the group.
Salma’s Predictions: England defeat Bangladesh. New Zealand win their game against Scotland and comfortably make it across the line. Then, Sri Lanka defeat Australia to go through over Bangladesh based on Net Run Rate.
Group B
South Africa and West Indies have already qualified for the knockout stages. A win for Pakistan and India will see them through as well.
Pakistan are strong favorites for qualification. For them to be eliminated, they will need to lose to Ireland by more than 97 runs and India win their game against UAE.
India find themselves in a decent position as well. They may still be able to qualify with a loss. Their worst case scenario is with them losing to UAE and Ireland winning against Pakistan, with India’s net run advantage of 56 runs over Ireland lost along the way.
Ireland can still qualify for the knockouts. Their best chance comes in the scenario where they defeat Pakistan in their must-win clash and India lose to UAE, with India’s net run advantage of 56 runs made up along the way.
UAE’s best chance of qualification is for them to defeat India by 114 runs or more and Pakistan helping them out by defeating Ireland.
Salma’s Predictions: India lose their final game to UAE by a narrow margin. Ireland defeat Pakistan by 40 odd runs and give India a scare by nearly eliminating them from the tournament. Pakistan and India qualify based on Net Run Rate.
LINE-UP SUBMISSION
All managers are requested to email me their four substitutes and their FPL IDs before the deadline of Friday, 1 May, 2359 BST. In case he or she fails to do so, the autosubs will be the last four players on the Squads Page.
Managers may also be likely to post any pressers on this article here. So be on the lookout for latest team news, especially from your rivals. As always, please keep all the match day banter on this thread.
Cricketers, brace yourselves for a drama filled weekend.
