Pakistan’s captain Salman Agha (left) shake palms with England captain Harry Brook on the toss through the ICC T20 World Cup Tremendous Eight match on February 24, 2026. — PCB
Two-time champions England secured a hard-fought four-wicket win over New Zealand in a vital Tremendous Eights conflict of the ICC Males’s T20 World Cup 2026 on the R Premadasa Stadium on Friday.
New Zealand captain Mitchell Santner’s resolution to bat first backfired as they might muster 159/7 of their allotted 20 overs towards a spin-heavy England bowling assault.
Center-order batter Glenn Phillips remained the top-scorer for New Zealand with a 28-ball 39, adopted by openers Tim Seifert and Finn Allen, who made 35 and 29, respectively.
For England, Will Jacks, Adil Rashid and Rehan Ahmed bagged two wickets every, whereas Liam Dawson chipped in with one.
In flip, England chased down the 160-run goal for the lack of six wickets and three balls to spare, courtesy of a quickfire 44-run unbeaten partnership for the seventh wicket between Jacks and Rehan.
Jacks made an unbeaten 32 off simply 18 deliveries, smashing 4 fours and a six, whereas Rehan scored 19 not out from seven balls with the assistance of two sixes and a 4.
Rachin Ravindra was the decide of the bowlers for New Zealand, taking three wickets for simply 19 runs in his 4 overs, whereas Matt Henry, Lockie Ferguson and Phillips might bag one apiece.
England’s victory put New Zealand’s hopes of semi-final qualification on maintain, moreover preserving Pakistan in competition, who subsequent face co-hosts Sri Lanka within the final Group 2 Tremendous Eights match of the T20 World Cup 2026 in Kandy on Saturday.
Pakistan, positioned third in Group 2 standings with one level in two matches, now have to beat Sri Lanka by round 65 runs or chase down the goal in 13.1 overs to raised New Zealand’s web run price of 1.390.
The Inexperienced Shirts’ web run price, nevertheless, at the moment stands at a detrimental 0.461, and in the event that they fail to beat Sri Lanka by a considerable margin, New Zealand would be part of England in qualifying for the semi-finals from Group 2.
