As of now, England are placed third while Australia are on top, followed by India. If Australia beat South Africa on Saturday and India get the better of Sri Lanka, the standings will remain the same. In that case, second placed India will face England in the World Cup 2019 semi-finals while Australia will most likely lock horns with New Zealand, who are fourth at the moment
Chester-le-Street (Durham): England heaved a sigh of relief as they qualified for the ICC World Cup 2019 semi-final after defeating New Zealand on Wednesday (July 3). Now, the team has an advantage in the last-four stage, feels captain Eoin Morgan.
Hosts England are likely to face India or Australia in the semi-final at Edgbaston, Birmingham. Depending on the final league phase results on Saturday (July 6), the semi-final opponents will be decided.
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As of now, England are placed third while Australia are on top, followed by India. If Australia beat South Africa on Saturday and India get the better of Sri Lanka, the standings will remain the same. In that case, second placed India will face England while Australia will most likely lock horns with New Zealand, who are fourth at the moment.
After the victory against the Kiwis in Durham, Morgan was asked whether they had home advantage in the second semi-final on July 11 at a ground where they have won their previous four ODIs including the recent one against India.
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“Yeah, it's a place (Edgbaston) that we really like playing. If we had a choice of where we would play our group-stage games, Edgbaston, The Oval and Trent Bridge would probably be the three grounds where we would have played the nine games, if it was just your own World Cup. So it is comforting that we are going to one of those three grounds,” Morgan told reporters in the post-match press conference on Wednesday.
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On a long break before the semi-finals, Morgan said it was good thing that they can enter the match fresh.
“I think it is a really good thing. I can't wait to do nothing, or get distracted by other things that I enjoy doing. It's been — I suppose we have rode the rollercoaster of playing well, playing terrible and playing good again, so particularly our bowlers, they need a rest, they need to get away. We haven't chopped and changed the team a lot so our seamers do need a rest. And our batsmen need to get away from the game and hopefully come back fresh,” the skipper said.
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