CWC 2023: New Zealand’s big loss opens up semifinal race

A 187-run loss against South Africa in Pune has brought New Zealand’s Net Run Rate (NRR) from 1.232 to 0.484. While this is still marginally better than Pakistan’s NRR, If Pakistan manage an 83-run victory against New Zealand on Saturday in the Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bengaluru provided that they have scored more than 300, they would be surpassing New Zealand on the points table. They can achieve the same by chasing down the target set by New Zealand within 35 overs. 

Furthermore even if Pakistan does not manage to achieve this margin, their last game against England and New Zealand’s last game Sri Lanka can also be a deciding factor. Since Pakistan’s match is scheduled later, they would also have a clearer picture of what they would have to achieve in order to make it to the semi-finals. 

Apart from Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Afghanistan and Netherlands are also still in contention. Afghanistan are the most strongly poised among these teams. They have games scheduled against Netherlands, Australia and South Africa. Their game against Netherlands is in the spin friendly conditions of Lucknow. A win against either Australia or South Africa cannot be ruled out either. This would put them in contention for a semi-final spot.