Chasing 172 runs, New Zealand openers Devon Conway and Rachin Ravindra gave a brilliant start, but the Black Caps lost 5 wickets soon. However, by 23.2 over, New Zealand thrashed Sri Lanka by 5 wickets with 160 balls remaining at the ongoing ICC Men’s World Cup 2023 in Bengaluru. 

Batting second, New Zealand openers Devon Conway (45) and Rachin Ravindra (42) gave the perfect start the Black Caps needed. After the openers were out, Daryl Mitchell (43) gave the perfect throttle New Zealand needed, while Glenn Phillips ensured New Zealand’s victory in just 23.2 overs.

For Sri Lanka, Angelo Mathews took 2 wickets, while Dushmantha Chameera and Maheesh Theekshana picked one wickets each.

Following this win, the Black Caps have inched closer to semi-finals with 10 points in 9 matches and a net runrate of (+)0.743. They are in the fourth position and all depends on how Pakistan performs against England on 11 November.

Not only, it would be a must win match for Pakistan, but also they need to win the match by a huge margin.

In case New Zealand qualify, it wil face with India at Mumbai’s Wankhede on 15 November for Semi-Finals, else if Pakistan qualify somehow, they will clash with India on 16 Novembr at Eden Gardens.

Earlier, Sri Lankan team was all-out on the score of 171 runs as the tail-end batters held their ground well and took the team to a fightable score. 

Sri Lanka continued to loose wickets as no partnership evolved for the team. Mitchell Santner displayed the magic of spin to clinch two crucial wickets while Lockie Ferguson continued to dominate with the effect of his pace to derail Sri Lankan batting. 

In the first 10 overs, half of Sri Lanka’s batting order was sitting in the dugout as Trent Boult clinched 3 wickets while Tim Southee and Lockie Ferguson took one wicket each. Kusal Perera played wonderfully and slammed the fastest half-century of ICC World Cup 2023 on just 21 balls. Angelo Mathews and Dhananjaya de Silva are the new batters on crease