Monday, April 6th, 2020
Indian cricket team participated with five opening batsmen (Kannur, Shikhar, Rohit, Prithvi, and Mayank) in the 2020 ICC T20 tournament. In the league stage, a different pair opened the batting for India in every match. There were a total of five century partnerships for the first wicket against Australia, England, New Zealand, Pakistan, Sri Lanka. Every batsman was a part of two century partnerships.
Every century partnership involved Mayank, Kannur, or Shikhar but there was no batsman common in the century stands against Australia and Sri Lanka.
Kannur got out after scoring 7 against Australia in the third over he played.
Mayank was involved in the century stand against England.
One batsman was involved in the century stand against both England and Pakistan.
The batsman who shared a century stand with Shikhar was also involved in the century stand against New Zealand.
Rohit got out on the first ball when he opened with Kannur.
India qualified for the semifinals because of the phenomenal performance by Prithvi and Mayank in the last match where they posted the highest first wicket partnership of the tournament.
In the semifinals, India is supposed to go battle it out with New Zealand. The coach Shastri and the captain Virat think it would be a good idea to open with the pair that hit the century against New Zealand in the league match.
So, who do they select to open in the Semi Finals?
Answer – Kannur and Prithvi
There are 5 opening batsmen, and since different pair opened batting for India in every league match we know that total number of league match India played is  and equivalent possible opening pairs to consider which are –
{ Note – We will denote a pair by the player’s first letter in parentheses separated by symbol + like (K+S) denotes the opening pair of Kannur and Shikhar. Also note that, this pairing is combinatorial and hence order of player name is irrelevant, i..e + is commutative → K+S and S+K denotes same pair. }
Total possible pairs | Exclusions striked out |
(K+S) , (K+R) , (K+P) , (K+M) | (K+S) , (K+R) , (K+P) , (K+M) |
(S+R) , (S+P) , (S+M) | (S+R) , (S+P) , ( S+M) |
(R+P) , (R+M) | Â (R+P) , (R+M) |
(M+P) | (M+P) |
First, we select 5 pairs from this group who scored centuries against given teams.
So we have 5 pairs –
(K+S) , (K+P) , (S+R), (R+M), (M+P)
 Now Kannur got out after scoring 7 in the third over against Australia which implies that it is a match where Kannur did not open and century partnership was not done. { A century partnership with score of 93* and 7 to opening batsman, assuming rationality since 4 balls are minimum required for getting out at 7, remaining balls can not be used to score 93*}.
Anyway taking this case, i.e. (K+S) or (K+P) did score a century opening partnership against Australia, we ended with no solution with given constraints. So these pairs can be removed from Australia century stands. So possible australia stand → (S+R) (R+M) (M+P)
Since Mayank was involved against England century stand so 2 choices are there → (M+P) or (M+R).
Only batsman to share a century pair with Shikar is R or K so possible choices for the New zealand stand are → (K+P) , (R+M) . Since Shikar is obviously not part of it (no repetition).
Pakistan and Englands stand have 1 batsman common ( i.e. M or R or P), so it cannot be (K+S)
So Srilanka stand must be → (K+S)
 Since Srilanka stand and Australia stand do not share any batsman, (R+S) is not an Australia stand.
We have now choices :
Australia | England | Pakistan | New Zealand | Sri lanka |
(R+M) (M+P) | (M+P) (M+R) | (K+P) (R+S) (R+M) | (K+P) (R+M) | (K+S) |
Clearly (R+S) is the opening stand against Pakistan. (as no other location in table)
Australia | England | Pakistan | New Zealand | Sri lanka |
(R+M) (M+P) | (M+P) (M+R) | (R+S) | (K+P) ( R+M) | (K+S) |
Clearly (K+P) is the opening stand against NewZealand(as no other location in table) And
Hence the answer → Kunnar and Prithvi.
Further (M+P) can not be a pair against England, as they do not have 1 batsman in common with Pakistan. Pair against England and Australia turns to be (M+R) and (M+P) respectively. So pairs are :-
Australia | England | Pakistan | New Zealand | Sri lanka |
 (R+M) (M+P) |  (M+P) (M+R) | (R+S) | (K+P) | (K+S) |
Garima Yadav – garimaya*****@yahoo.in
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Mayank & Shikhar
Kannur & Prithvi
Kannur and rohit