23 Mar 2016 | Cricket
England's tournament-reviving win over South Africa was bordering on unfathomable. Set a whopping 230 for victory, Eoin Morgan's side required the highest run chase in World T20 history, the second-highest run-chase ever in T20I cricket and 40 more than their previous best to avoid an ignominious early exit.
Powerful, accurate Jason Roy set the tone with a blistering start - England had 50 up in 17 balls - before classy, clinical Joe Root reinforced his position as one of the world's best in all formats with a glittering 83 from 44 balls.
A fabulous, confidence-building victory from a perilous position, but that is now consigned to history and Trevor Bayliss' troops must quickly refocus on Afghanistan and getting out of the group, a task that is far from confirmed. England must be ruthless in their approach with progression via net run-rates a real possibility in Group 1.
Overcoming rapidly improving Associate nation Afghanistan - they gave the Proteas a fright on Sunday - is a must but a comprehensive win could be important too. If unbeaten West Indies complete a clean-sweep of the group (therein defeating South Africa on Friday) then England will just need to beat Sri Lanka in their final game on Saturday to qualify.
But if South Africa bounce back to beat the Windies then a heavy defeat of Sri Lanka will be necessary to pile the pressure on the Proteas for their final game against the same opposition on Monday. Three teams could finish the group on three wins and six points; no one wants the heartbreak of third and no place in the semi-finals.
As we stand after two matches West Indies have a net run rate of +0.893, South Africa +0.816, Sri Lanka -0.171 and England -0.408. There is work to do.
Moeen Ali joked that we've not got the brains in our team to really think about run-rates and, while that is firmly tongue-in-cheek, the all-rounder is right that England must simply concentrate on two victories with maximum efficiency and see where it takes them.
When? Wednesday 23 March
Where? Kotla, Delhi
Start? 9:30am (GMT)