Pakistan most likely need to beat New Zealand to keep alive their hopes of reaching the Cricket World Cup semifinals.
The comeback kings face the early contenders on the slide when Pakistan take on New Zealand in Bengaluru on Saturday in the Cricket World Cup.
Pakistan, renowned as dangerous animals when caged, stormed to a seven-wicket win against Bangladesh in Kolkata on Tuesday to end a four-match losing streak.
The Kiwis, defeated finalists in 2019, won their first four games but have now lost three on the bounce, including a humbling defeat by South Africa on Wednesday.
The run has seen them slip to fourth spot, two places and two points above Pakistan, in the final qualifying sport for the semifinals
“We won’t make it bigger than what it is,” New Zealand batter Daryl Mitchell said, instead choosing to look ahead to the match against Pakistan.
“It’s another two points for this tournament, which is important for us in the big scheme of things, but we’ll keep playing like Black Caps do, and I’m sure we’ll come a long way to winning the game.”
Pakistan are sixth in the table, two points behind Afghanistan in fifth. A win for Pakistan would take them level with the Kiwis with one game to play.
Sri Lanka await New Zealand in Bengaluru next Thursday while Pakistan face England in Kolkata next Saturday.
A defeat would put the Kiwis out of reach for Pakistan although third-placed Australia could still be caught as they also sit on eight points. They, however, have a game in hand on the two teams immediately below them.
“I’ll be brutally honest – I don’t think we’ve played to our full potential in this tournament yet,” Pakistan coach Mickey Arthur said. “I thought the Bangladesh game was the first game where we actually put a complete game together.”
“We batted beautifully, bowled beautifully and fielded beautifully, which in all the other games we’ve done one or two disciplines OK. But our other disciplines let us down.
“I’d like to say we’re peaking, … but we found our best game against Bangladesh, and I just hope that’s not too late for us.”
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