Sri Lanka eliminated from T20 World Cup after loss to New Zealand: What does this mean for Pakan’s semifinal qualification scenario? | Cricket News

3 min readUpdated: Feb 25, 2026 11:00 PM Sri Lanka became the first team eliminated from the T20 World Cup on Wednesday after they lost their Super 8 match against New Zealand 61 runs. Chasing a target of 169, the Lankans were rocked early when they lost Pathum Nissanka in the very first delivery.
After that, the wickets kept falling regularly with Kusal Mendis scoring 11, followed Charith Asalanka who scored 5. Pavan Rathnayake fell for 10 while Kamindu Mendis could only score 31. Skipper Dasun Shanaka was also dismissed for 3 while Rachin Ravindra snapped up 4 wickets.
Earlier, skipper Mitchell Santner (47) and Cole McConchie (31 not out) led New Zealand’s fightback after middle-order collapse. New Zealand suffered a batting collapse as they slipped from 75/2 to 84/6 during which they also lost three wickets without adding a run. Santner scored 47 off 26 balls with four sixes and two fours, while McConchie hit 31 not out from 23 balls (3 fours, 2 sixes). The pair added 84 runs for the seventh wicket.
What does this mean for Pakan
While New Zealand winning the match against the Lankans does not eliminate Pakan, it increases the pressure on them ten-fold. In order for Pakan to stay alive in the competition, they will need to win their last match against Sri Lanka and hope that New Zealand lose to England on February 27.

If New Zealand lose their last match vs England and Pakan win their match vs Sri Lanka on February 28, both would be on 3 points which will bring net run rate into the equation. However, if the Kiwis win against England, they’ll go to 5 points which will be the end of the road for Pakan because even if they defeated Sri Lanka, they can only reach 3 points.
Even if rain washes out the England vs New Zealand match and Pakan defeat Sri Lanka, the Kiwis will still reach 4 points as opposed to Pakan’s 3. In case the rain washes out both matches, Pakan will get 2 while New Zealand will have 4 which will again help the Kiwis reach the semis.

The only way Pakan can get through is a New Zealand lose heavily to England and they win a big margin against Sri Lanka due to the NRR coming into the equation.Story continues below this ad
SUPER 8 GROUP 2 POINTS TABLE

POS
TEAM
M
W
L
N/R
T
Points
NRR

1
England (Q)
2
2
0
0
0
4
1.491

2
New Zealand
2
1
0
1
0
3
3.050

3
Pakan
2
0
1
1
0
1
-0.461

4
Sri Lanka
2
0
2
0
0
0
-2.800