Colombo: Two-time champions England beat New Zealand by four wickets in the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup 2026 Super Eight at the R Premadasa Stadium on Friday.
New Zealand skipper Mitchell Santner’s decision to bat first as they managed to post 159/7 in the allotted 20 overs against a spin-heavy England bowling attack.
New Zealand’s middle-order batsman Glenn Phillips remained the top scorer with 39 off 28 balls, while openers Tim Seifert and Finn Allen scored 35 and 29 respectively.
For England, Will Jacks, Adil Rashid and Rehan Ahmed took 2 wickets each and Liam Dawson took one wicket.
In turn, Jacks and Rehan put on an unbeaten seventh-wicket partnership of 44 as England chased down the target of 160 with 6 wickets and 3 balls to spare.
Jacks scored an unbeaten 32 off 18 balls with 4 fours and a six while Rehan scored 19 runs off 7 balls with 2 sixes and a four.
Middle-order batsman Tom Banton, however, top scored for England with 33 off 24 balls with 3 fours and a six.
Among the New Zealand bowlers, Rachin Ravindra conceded just 19 runs in his four overs with three wickets, while Matt Henry, Lockie Ferguson and Phillips took one each.
England’s win puts New Zealand’s hopes of semi-final qualification on hold and keeps Pakistan in contention to face Sri Lanka in the final Group 2 Super Eight match of the T20 World Cup 2026 in Kandy on Saturday.
Pakistan, third in Group 2 with a point from two matches, now need to beat Sri Lanka by 65 runs or chase down the target in 13 overs, increasing New Zealand’s net run rate to 1.390.
| Teams | Competitions | succeeds | Losses | No result | points | Net flow rate |
| England | 3 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 6 | 1.096 |
| New Zealand | 3 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 3 | 1.390 |
| Pakistan | 2 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 1 | -0.461 |
| Sri Lanka | 2 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | -2.800 |
However, the Green Shirts’ net run rate currently stands at negative 0.461 and if they fail to beat Sri Lanka by a significant margin, New Zealand will join England to qualify for the semi-finals from Group 2.