Explained: How Scotland's big win over Oman has put defending champions England's Super 8 qualification chances in jeopardy

While India were making inroads and causing a batting collapse to beat Pakistan by six runs in a thrilling encounter, Scotland chased down the target of 151 in just 13.1 overs at Sir Vivian Richards Stadium, Antigua. The win helped Scotland not only reach the top of Group B points table but boost their net run rate (NRR) as well.
 

The win has put defending champions England’s chances of qualifying for the Super 8 stage in jeopardy. England's first match against Scotland was washed out due to rain and both teams shared one point each. In their next match, they lost to Mitchell Marsh-led Australia by 36 runs. 

England's qualification scenario

Now, England’s next two matches are not just must-win contests but they have to win by good margins against Oman and Namibia to have a chance to advancing to the Super 8 stage. England's next two matches on June 13 and 15 are in Antigua.

England need Australia to do them a favour

In addition, if Scotland beat Australia which will be the biggest upset in recent years, they will knock out England. England will also rely on Australia to beat Scotland by a big margin and dent the Richie Berrington-led side’s NRR. 

“It was important to come out on top today, we have got ourselves in a good position,” Berrington said in the post-match presentation. 

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Moeen's focus on NRR

England’s vice captain Moeen Ali acknowledged that NRR is going to play a big role going forward in the tournament. 
 

"Net run rate is huge and there's been quite a few tournaments when I've missed out on net run rate, so it's huge," Moeen said as quoted by ESPNCricinfo. "If we get the chance in those next two games we're going to have to win by quite big margins.
 

"We've got the team to do that. I know in this World Cup big teams are losing but we've got to go into these two games and almost throw the first punch and just keep going from there.
 

 

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Moeen also revealed the effect of the loss to Australia. He said that the team will aim to be ruthless in the remaining group stages. 
 

"When you lose a game, especially [against] Australia, the camp is never positive. But you can't get too down and go into our shells and say 'What if this happens?' We've just to be really ruthless in those two games playing our best cricket otherwise we're going home."
 

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