New Zealand knock Sri Lanka out with 61-run victory:Mitchell Santner, Rachin Ravindra help Kiwis keep semifinal hopes alive

New Zealand have knocked out co-hosts Sri Lanka from the T20 World Cup 2026 with a 61-run victory over the island nation in the Super 8 stage at the R Premadasa Stadium in Colombo on 25 February. Chasing 169 to win, Sri Lanka had a shambolic batting performance as they were restricted to 107/8 in 20 overs. With this victory, New Zealand kept alive their hopes of making it to the semifinals after having a washout against Pakistan. Sri Lanka, on the other hand, can only get to a maximum of two points, which would not be enough for semifinal qualification. Rachin Ravindra was named Player of the Match for his all-round show. Mitchell Santner, Cole McConchie’s 84-run stand took NZ 168/7 New Zealand were pushed back big time, reduced to 84/6 at one stage in 12.1 overs. But an 84-run partnership between captain Mitchell Santner (47) and Cole McConchie (31) took New Zealand to a fighting 168/7, which eventually proved to be a winning score. Rachin Ravindra (32), Finn Allen (23) also made important contributions for New Zealand. For Sri Lanka, Maheesh Theekshana and Dushmantha Chameera took three wickets each. Dunith Wellalage, on the other hand, scalped one wicket. Also read: Sanju Samson may return vs Zimbabwe: Rinku Singh to rejoin team before must-win clash, says Sitanshu Kotak Rachin Ravindra spins New Zealand to victory After his 32-run knock off 22 deliveries, which included three fours and one six, Ravindra made his presence felt big time with the ball as well. The part-time spinner wrecked Sri Lanka’s batting with a four-wicket haul (4/27) in his four overs. Pacer Matt Henry wreaked havoc with two wickets for just three runs in two overs, while captain Santner and Glenn Phillips took one wicket each. New Zealand’s qualification scenario With three points in the bag now, New Zealand will look to beat England in their last Super 8 match on 27 February. A defeat to England would then make their semifinal qualification tricky, provided Pakistan defeat Sri Lanka. At that point, Net Run Rate (NRR) would become the point of difference between the two teams. A victory over England would seal for New Zealand a place in the semis. Over 1 million searches on Google for New Zealand vs Sri Lanka match The New Zealand vs Sri Lanka match garnered a lot of interest in India, with Google registering over 1 million searches. At the time of the toss, there was a lot of interest and hence, the graph below took an upward turn. It did dip for a while before picking up pace once again. Source: Google Trends