Hyderabad: Sri Lanka will be disheartened with their loss against New Zealand in the World Cup game on Thursday, as a defeat has put their Champions League 2025 position in danger. However, one more team that was hit hard by Lankan defeat is Pakistan as it has almost knocked them out of the semi-final race.
Babar Azam and Co. are practically out of the World Cup unless they beat England with a massive margin. While Pakistan suffered defeats against India, Australia and South Africa, it was the loss against Afghanistan that hurt them the most.
When New Zealand and Sri Lanka met in Bengaluru, Pakistan wanted either the latter to beat the former or the fixture getting washed out due to rain. Notably, rain interruption was forecast before the game but neither weather played a part for Pakistan nor Sri Lanka carved a prolific performance.
The Men in Green will play against England on November 11 with a daunting task of winning the game either by a margin of at least 287 runs while batting first or chase the target with 284 balls to spare while batting second as they will have to chase New Zealand's net run rate of 0.743. That means, Pakistan will have to almost make a total of 400 or more to give their bowlers enough space to go for the kill. Notably, Pakistan have never made a 400+ total in their ODI history while England have never conceded a total of more than 400 in the ODI history.
Afghanistan, on the other hand looks to be definitely out off the race to semi-final as they will have to manage a 438-run win over Australia in their last World Cup game. So, a brilliant bowling display from New Zealand including Trent Boult's three wicket haul has almost knocked out Pakistan and Afghanistan from the race to semi-final.
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