New\u00a0Zealand\u00a0reached the Twenty20 World Cup semi-finals after Pakistan crashed out despite a five-run victory against already-eliminated Sri Lanka in a Group Two Super Eights match in Pallekele on Saturday.<\/p>\n
An\u00a0inferior net run rate meant Pakistan had to win big against Sri Lanka in order to pip New\u00a0Zealand\u00a0and join group leaders England in the\u00a0last four.<\/p>\n
They racked up 212-8 after Sahibzada Farhan (100) and Fakhar Zaman (84) combined in a T20 World Cup record 176-run opening stand.<\/p>\n
Pakistan had to restrict their opponents to 147 or less to make the last four,\u00a0but Sri Lanka finished on 207-6 nearly snatching a victory.<\/p>\n
Pavan Rathnayake made 58 and Sri Lanka captain Dasun Shanaka smoked an unbeaten 76 off 31 balls.<\/p>\n
Defending champions India\u00a0will\u00a0play West Indies in a virtual quarter-final in Kolkata on Sunday with the winners claiming the last semi-final spot.<\/p>\n
“It could\u00a0have been a different story had we won the toss,” Pakistan captain Salman Agha said.<\/p>\n
“Dew was a factor, and we couldn’t execute our plans.”<\/p>\n
Put in to bat in a do-or-die match at the Pallekele International Cricket Stadium, Pakistan could not have asked for a better start.<\/p>\n
Farhan led their charge with scintillating power-hitting as he and Zaman denied Sri Lanka a breakthrough until the 16th over.<\/p>\n
Sri Lanka’s sloppy fielding did not help their cause either.<\/p>\n
Dunith Wellalage dropped Farhan on 75, while Janith Liyanage caught the batter on 76 but stepped onto the boundary cushion in the process.<\/p>\n
FARHAN BREAKS KOHLI’S RECORD<\/p>\n
Farhan, who also bettered\u00a0Indian\u00a0Virat Kohli’s record of most runs in a T20 World Cup with his tally of 383, needed 59 balls to become the first batter to score two hundreds in the same edition of the tournament.<\/p>\n
The partnership came to an end when Zaman dragged a Dushmantha Chameera delivery onto his stumps, which triggered a late collapse.<\/p>\n
Farhan was caught in the covers off the bowling of Dilshan Madushanka after a stellar knock studded with five sixes and nine fours.<\/p>\n
Having already been eliminated, Sri Lanka faltered early in their chase and were 33-2 having lost both openers inside five overs.<\/p>\n
Charith Asalanka fell after a brisk 25 and spinner Abrar Ahmed (3-23) dismissed Kamindu Mendis in his next over.<\/p>\n
Rathnayake’s belligerent 58 could not force a win for Sri Lanka but knocked Pakistan out of the tournament.<\/p>\n
Shanaka, whose job is reportedly at risk after leading Sri Lanka’s poor campaign, injected fresh excitement into the dead rubber\u00a0by\u00a0hitting eight sixes.<\/p>\n
Needing 28 from the last over from Shaheen Afridi, Shanaka began with a four before clobbering three sixes in a row.<\/p>\n
Afridi recovered from the assault to finish with two\u00a0fairly\u00a0wide deliveries which Shanaka could not connect\u00a0with.<\/p>\n
“It was a close game,” Shanaka said. “I could\u00a0have finished it but well bowled to Shaheen.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"New\u00a0Zealand\u00a0reached the Twenty20 World Cup semi-finals after Pakistan crashed out despite a five-run victory against already-eliminated Sri Lanka…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":307113,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[111,43,139,69],"class_list":{"0":"post-307112","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-zealand","8":"tag-new-zealand","9":"tag-news","10":"tag-newzealand","11":"tag-nz"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/307112","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=307112"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/307112\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/307113"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=307112"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=307112"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=307112"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}