New Zealand will have to wait for Sri Lanka to beat Pakistan. Or even hope that the Men in Green don’t beat Sri Lanka by a large margin to surpass their net run rate (NRR). However, if Pakistan beats Sri Lanka.
Qualifying scenario for New Zealand and Pakistan explained
In that situation, both New Zealand and Pakistan end on three points. The team with the best net run rate advances. The Kiwis haven’t lost runs or wickets by a large margin as they took the game deep.
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For Pakistan, they need to beat Sri Lanka by a huge margin. Only then can Pakistan surpass New Zealand’s net run rate of +1,390. It’s going to be an exciting encounter on Saturday as we head to the final day performances, and the battle for the semi-finals is starting to heat up.
If Pakistan wins the toss and chooses to bat first and scores 160, they must win by more than 64 runs. Later, if Sri Lanka scores 160, Salman Ali Agha’s side need to win with more than 40 balls to spare, meaning they need to win the chase of a target of 160 in just 13 overs.
New Zealand’s over-reliance on spin let them down
At the match, Mitchell Santner won the toss and elected to bat first. After a very good first over from Jofra Archer, the speedster bowled a maiden. The Black Caps openers, Finn Allen and Tim Seifert, started striking at a good pace from both ends. The first was the aggressor between the two. Seifert, who was struggling a bit, went back into the pavilion after scoring 35 from 25 balls.
Allen was later dismissed after scoring 29 off 19 balls, falling in Will Jacks’ over. After two sudden wickets, Glenn Phillips and Rachin Ravindra formed a small partnership. Rachin struggled against the spin and was back after scoring just 11 points.
Phillips played a knock of 39 off 28 balls, hitting four boundaries and one six. Later there were small contributions from Mark Chapman and Cole McConchie, 15 off 9, with the latter scoring 14 off 12 as they closed on a defendable total of 160 runs.
He came out to chase England, losing Phil Salt in the very first over for a score of two runs, and Jos Buttler followed in the next over as the former England captain failed to open his account, and this was his fifth consecutive single-figure score in the competition.
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Then Harry Brook and Jacob Bethell settled for some time between 2/2, building a partnership of 48 runs before the England captain, Harry Brook, was dismissed by Glenn Phillips with a score of 26 from 24 balls. Bethell followed his captain when they were still 58/4, with Phillips taking a brilliant catch to dismiss the Southpaw.
Later, Sam Curran, Tom Banton and Will Jacks made valuable contributions to the side. Curran scored 24 off 22, and Banton, looking set, got out with a cheap shot to the score of 33 off 24 balls. With 21 needed from the last two overs, Jacks and Rehan Ahmed made the chase look easy as they finished with three balls to spare.
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