Twenty20 World Cup: Format Explained

The 12 participating teams have been divided into 4 pools, wherein each team will play once against the other 2 teams in its pool to decide who goes into the Super Eight. Let's look at the pools:

Pool A	Pool B	Pool C	Pool D	Group Seeding
S.Africa	Australia	NewZealand	Pakistan	1
West Indies	England	Sri Lanka	India	2
Bangladesh	Zimbabwe	Kenya	Scotland	3

( The last column only indicates the seedings within the group)

Whether South Africa finish 1st or 2nd in the group, they will be called A1 for the purpose of Super Eight. West Indies will similary be called A2 irrespective of their group standing at the end of the first round. However if there is an upset and Bangladesh qualifies instead of South Africa, Bangladesh will be A1. Similary if Bangladesh qualifies instead of West Indies they will be called A2.

Super Eights

(Unlike the ODI World Cup, the points from the first round will not be carried forward to the Super Eight stage)

This round will comprise 2 groups, E & F. Group E will comprise A1, B2, C1 & D2. Group F will comprise A2, B1, C2 & D1.

Each team will play against the other teams in its group only. ( 3 matches each) In the semi-finals, the team which finishes first in Group E will play the runner-up of the Group F and vice-versa.

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Other interesting posts:

Duckworth Lewis for Dummies

Net Run Rate Calculation Method for World Cup 2007 (ODI)