KOLKATA: Pakistan men’s cricket team on Saturday, has officially been knocked out of the ICC World Cup 2023 semi-final contention.
Pakistan, who are fifth in the World Cup standings with eight points in as many matches, needed to win their last fixture against England by a hefty margin of 287 runs or 260 balls to spare to go past New Zealand’s superior net run-rate.
Pakistan, while chasing a daunting 338-run target, could get to 30/2 in 6.4 overs, resulting in them bowing out of the semi-final race.
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Consequently, New Zealand have successfully managed to hold on to their fourth position in the standings with 10 points in nine matches and a healthy net run rate of 0.743.
The Blackcaps will now take on unbeaten India in the first semi-final on November 15. Whereas, five-time champions Australia will lock horns with South Africa in the second knockout game a day later.
Pakistan’s campaign in the ICC World Cup 2023 was nothing short of a rollercoaster ride.
The Babar Azam-led side started their World Cup campaign with two victories.
They outclassed the Netherlands by 81 runs in their campaign opener before they pulled off the highest run chase in the history of the ODI World Cup to down Sri Lanka by six wickets.
However, it was a sudden change of fortune for the men in green as they succumbed to a four-match losing streak, their first in the history of the World Cup.
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Their four-match losing streak saw them sink to their first-ever loss against Afghanistan in ODIs before losing to South Africa for the first time in a World Cup match in this century.
When it appeared to be done and dusted for the Green Shirts, Babar Azam’s men scripted an astonishing comeback to the ICC World Cup 2023 semi-final race by thrashing Bangladesh by seven wickets and 105 balls to spare.
Pakistan then pulled off another heist when they downed New Zealand by 21 runs as per the Duckworth–Lewis–Stern (DLS) method despite the latter scoring a mammoth 401/6 in the allotted 50 overs.
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