Pakistan knocked out of T20 World Cup 2026 despite beating Sri Lanka, New Zealand qualify for semifinals

Pakistan have been knocked out of the T20 World Cup 2026. They failed to restrict Sri Lanka to 147 runs or fewer while defending the total of 212 runs. Pakistan needed to win by 65 runs or more to surpass New Zealand in terms of net run-rate, but they couldn't. New Zealand have now qualified for the semifinal of the T20 World Cup and will meet South Africa on March 4 at the Eden Gardens in Kolkata.

As far as the match is concerned, Pakistan won by only five runs, 60 fewer than they needed to make it to the knockouts. The fact that Sri Lanka got so close was due to their captain, Dasun Shanaka, who batted



extremely well and singlehandedly almost defeated Pakistan with his 76-run blitzkrieg off 31 balls with two fours and eight sixes.

Sri Lanka needed 46 runs off the last two overs, but he brought the equation down to six runs off the last two deliveries. He smashed three consecutive sixes off Shaheen Afridi in the final over, but the latter delivered two dots somehow, landing his deliveries in the right areas.

Earlier, Pavan Rathnayake also played a brilliant knock of 58 runs off 37 balls that helped Sri Lanka go past the 147-run mark and knock Pakistan out of the tournament.