The Super Group in the Super 8s
Eight teams are vying for four semi-final spots at the current stage of the 2009 Twenty20 World Championships. Theoretically, all teams should be in with an equal shot of making it, assuming all sides are more or less equal. But that is not the case and we now have one group more stacked than the other.
Here’s a look at the Castrol Team Index for the Super 8 teams at the 2009 T20 WC.
| Group E | Castrol Index | Group F | Castrol Index |
| South Africa | 182 | Sri Lanka | 168 |
| West Indies | 148 | New Zealand | 116 |
| India | 123 | Pakistan | 115 |
| England | 113 | Ireland | 99 |
| Group Average | 142 | Group Average | 125 |
Group E appears to be much stronger, which means it’s a tougher road to the semis for the teams in this group. Group F looks less competitive with minnows Ireland; and Pakistan and New Zealand looking patchy.
Another indicator of team success and dominance is the net run-rate. At the start of the Super 8 stage, Group E teams occupied four of the top five slots.
| Team | Net run-rate |
| South Africa | 3.28 |
| India | 1.23 |
| England | 1.18 |
| Pakistan | 0.85 |
| West Indies | 0.72 |
| Sri Lanka | 0.63 |
| New Zealand | 0.31 |
| Ireland | -0.16 |
So how did we end up with such uneven groups? Partly because of the seeding system used, which pre-assigned slots to teams regardless of their position in the preliminary group stages. As a result, three of the group winners in the preliminary stage find themselves paired together in Group E. Another implication of the seeding system is that it rendered the last three games of the preliminary group stage completely useless- the results had no bearing on the points or groupings for the Super 8 stage.
It then makes sense to have a better system in place- incentivize teams to win their groups so that every match is important. This can be done in a number of ways. For instance,
• Have carry-forward points
• Have a Super 6 stage as opposed to a Super 8, where the four group-winners automatically qualify and the four runners-up play knock-out games for the remaining two spots
• Either way, ensure only two group winners per group so that teams that have fared better avoid each other till the final stages
For now though, India, South Africa, England and West Indies must live with the fact that they have a tougher path to the final four than their Group F counterparts. The silver lining- they will be more battle-tested for semis and the final. If they make it that far!
Arvind Iyengar - View Profile.
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