New Zealand got beaten by Pakistan in match no 33, ICC World Cup 2019 at Wednesday in Edgbaston, Birmingham. Although Kiwis lost the game, they’re still in a firm position to go through in semifinals. Here, we are going to discuss how New Zealand can reach semifinal easily despite the loss against Pakistan.

ICC Cricket World Cup 2019: New Zealand is still safe to secure their semifinal spot despite losing against Pakistan

The Black Caps are in a very secured position to land in semifinals even with their loss against the resurrected Pakistan who finally wakes up in this tournament and produces two sublime performances against South Africa and New Zealand consecutively.

A win would have sealed Kiwis into a top three position which could literally ensure their semifinal berth but the nature of the loss against Pakistan where Pakistan needed 49.1 overs to triumph over them left Kiwis a very beneficial position.

New Zealand currently sitting on the second position with 11 points. There are mathematically only three teams besides the top four who can outdo them in the point table.

New Zealand is in very firm position despite losing the game against Pakistan.

Among the three teams, this is Sri Lanka who holds the easiest path and currently sitting 7th on the table by acquiring 6 points. They need to win the remaining three games and they should hope the Kiwis gonna lost the existing two matches against England and Australia.

However, Lankan’s three are games against Windies, South Africa, and India– very few people would bet for them to win these matches.

Apart from Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and Pakistan are the two remaining sides who can hope to catch the Black Caps. But, there’s another complication. Bangladesh and Pakistan will face each other in their last game so only one of them have the chance to catch the Black Caps.

Pakistan has more chances than Bangladesh as they will play their next game against Afghanistan while Bangladesh will play against India.

If Pakistan manage to win both of the clashes and in case NZ lose both of their remaining games, there still be a huge difference in net run-rate as New Zealand’s +1.028 is much superior to Pakistan’s -0.976.

After the match against Pakistan, Kiwis boss Gary Stead also indirectly highlighted it as his side managed to score 237/6 from 83/5.

Gary Stead also confessed it at the after-match press briefing. He said,

Our guys really fought very well but in the end, we lose, but the positive thing is we didn’t lose by big margins, the run-rate wasn’t much influenced by this loss.

The whole scenario is supporting New Zealand. It clearly shows even if they lose in remaining two games, there’s still a higher possibility that they will go through in semifinals.