England, who have already advanced to the semifinals, kept Pakistan’s dreams alive in the T20 World Cup on Friday by defeating New Zealand by four wickets in Colombo to maintain their all-win record in the Super Eights stage.
During the Super Eights, England have won three straight games. With three points, New Zealand are ranked second in Group 2.
With one point, Pakistan are in third place. To move New Zealand out of second place and go to the semifinals, they must defeat Sri Lanka, who have already been eliminated, on Saturday.
To pass New Zealand and get to the semi-finals, Pakistan must defeat Sri Lanka by 64 runs or chase in about 13.1 overs.
England began their chase of 160 shakily, but they were able to get home in 19.3 overs because to some helpful contributions from Tom Banton (33), Will Jacks (32 not out), captain Harry Brook (26), Sam Curran (24) and Rehan Ahmed (19 not out).
Rachin Ravindra (3/19) was the best bowler for New Zealand.
Earlier, England restricted New Zealand to 159/7 by bowling a team-high 16 overs of spin.
After winning the toss and choosing to bat against England, who had already qualified, New Zealand got off to a strong start, reaching 53/0 in six overs.
However, England recovered control when skipper Harry Brook used five slow bowlers, replacing seamer Jamie Overton with Rehan Ahmed, an extra spinner.
The 2010 and 2022 winners locked down the New Zealand batsmen on a turning pitch after bowling more overs of spin than they had ever done in a T20 international.
Adil Rashid took 2/28 and is currently England’s top wicket-taker in the competition with 11, while Will Jacks returned the best statistics with 2/23.
Ahmed, a fellow wrist spinner making his T20 World Cup debut, complemented Rashid by taking a wicket with his first ball before ending with 2/28 from three overs.
Tim Seifert scored 35, while Glenn Phillips led with 39 off 28, which included four fours and a six. The other spinners used by England were Jacob Bethell (0/13) and Liam Dawson (1/32).
