The race for the semi-finals of the T20 World Cup 2026 has now reached the very last match. In a thrilling match of Super-8 round, England defeated New Zealand by 4 wickets in the last over. England, which has already qualified for the semi-finals, gave a big blow to New Zealand’s hopes of reaching the semi-finals with this victory. This victory increased the hopes of Pakistan and now the fate of Salman Aga’s team is in his own hands. Now the team going to the semi-finals from this group will be decided by the match between Pakistan and Sri Lanka on 28th February.
New Zealand and Pakistan were simultaneously eyeing this Group 2 match played in Colombo on Friday, 27th February. If New Zealand had won this match, it would have qualified for the semi-finals, while Pakistan’s journey would have ended. Mitchell Santner’s team was close to doing so but in the last 3 overs, England dashed their hopes and took the decision of the semi-finals to the last match of the group.
Batting first on the slow pitch of Premadasa Stadium, New Zealand made a fast start with the help of Tim Seifert and Finn Allen and added 64 runs in 7 overs. But the team got into trouble as both the batsmen were out in just 5 balls. Despite this, Glenn Phillips was scoring runs rapidly from one side. But the spin trio of Adil Rashid, Will Jacques and Rehan Ahmed put brakes on the Kiwi batting. At one time, New Zealand seemed to be easily reaching 180 runs but ultimately could only score 159 runs. All three spinners took 2-2 wickets.
Despite this, New Zealand had a strong bowling attack, which could stop this team and the same appeared to happen. In the first two overs, England lost the wickets of both their openers for just 2 runs. Then when the partnership between captain Harry Brook and Jacob Batchelor started getting established, the New Zealand spinners showed their magic and dismissed both of them. Glenn Phillips and Rachin Ravindra put brakes on England’s innings and the situation became such that 6 wickets had fallen till 117 runs.
(News is being updated)