What Australia need to reach the World Cup semi-finals

UPDATE: Australia are through to the T20 World Cup semi-finals after beating West Indies, even after South Africa beat England.

Australia won't discover their World Cup fate until several hours after their final group match tonight as they and South Africa battle for just one spot in the tournament's semi-finals.

Aaron Finch's side will play the West Indies tonight from 9pm AEDT, but they won't be guaranteed of a place in the final four even if they beat the defending champions convincingly.

The outcome of South Africa's match against England, starting on Sunday at 1am AEDT, will ultimately determine the fate of both teams.

Australia and the Proteas are currently level on six points each, with the Aussies holding a 0.289 advantage on net run rate, which will be the deciding factor if both teams secure the same result tonight.

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Not including no results and ties (which is unlikely given multiple Super Overs can be played in the event of scores being level), there are four possible outcomes from the two matches:

1) Australia win and South Africa lose, which would see Australia advance to the semi-finals

2) Australia lose and South Africa win, which would see South Africa advance to the semi-finals

3) Both Australia and South Africa win, which would see the team with the superior net run rate advance to the final four

4) Both Australia and South Africa lose, which would see the team with the superior net run rate advance to the final four

England currently top the Group 1 on eight points and given their strong net run rate are all but certain to top the group, even if they lose to South Africa.

South Africa's skipper Temba Bavuma admitted his side have an advantage over Australia given they play second tonight, meaning they'll know exactly what they need to do against England in order to progress.

"I guess what helps us is that (Australia's) game happens before our game, so we'll kind of get a better sense or understanding as to how we need to approach the England game," he said.

"If Australia win, then it's going to come down to net run rate. We'll have an opportunity, I guess, somewhere along our game to control our net run rate or alter our approach.

"But I think the first point, without reading too much into everything else, is to win tomorrow's game, and then we can take it from there."

Australia's clinical run chase against Bangladesh on Thursday handed them a significant boost to their net run rate, moving them ahead of the Proteas on the table.

But given they play first tonight, the Aussies won't have a clear picture of South Africa's final net run rate during their game against the Windies, with skipper Finch saying his side will put those equations out of their minds.

"Behind the scenes, we made a conscious effort not to talk about net run rate and things like that," he said.

"You've obviously got to put yourself in a position to win the game before you can worry about anything else.

"We've just to play our best game again, and hopefully there's three games to go to win a tournament.

"We'd love to keep it in our control. That's all you can focus on. As soon as you start hoping other teams lose, it just clouds your judgement and your vision.

"So it's really important that we stick to our guns (and) stick to our process because we know that's good enough when we get it right."

2021 Men's T20 World Cup

Australia's squad

Aaron Finch (c), Ashton Agar, Pat Cummins (vc), Josh Hazlewood, Josh Inglis, Mitchell Marsh, Glenn Maxwell, Kane Richardson, Steve Smith, Mitchell Starc, Marcus Stoinis, Mitchell Swepson, Matthew Wade, David Warner, Adam Zampa. Travelling reserves: Dan Christian, Nathan Ellis, Daniel Sams

Oct 23: Australia beat South Africa by five wickets

Oct 28: Australia beat Sri Lanka by seven wickets

Oct 30: England beat Australia by eight wickets

Nov 4: Australia beat Bangladesh by eight wickets

Nov 6 v West Indies in Abu Dhabi (2pm local time, 9pm AEDT)

All matches live and exclusive on Fox Cricket, available on Kayo Sports.

Click here for the full 2021 ICC T20 World Cup schedule

Click here for the full squads for all 16 teams

Super 12 stage

Group 1: England, Australia, South Africa, West Indies, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh

Group 2: India, Pakistan, New Zealand, Afghanistan, Scotland, Namibia