In a must-win game for New Zealand to give themselves the best chance of securing a place in the semifinals of the ICC Men's Cricket World Cup 2023, the Blackcaps registered an 5-wicket win over Sri Lanka in a round-robin fixture at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bengaluru on Thursday (November 9). The win has more or less sealed their place in the semifinal against India but Pakistan and Afghanistan are still mathematically alive- all they would need is a win with a big margin that allows them to surpass the Kiwis on the net run rate (NRR). 

The Kiwis won the toss and elected to field first. Althogh it was Tim Southee (1/52) who picked up the first wicket, the tone was set by Trent Boult who picked 3 wickets inside the powerplay (3/37) to jolt Sri Lanka from which they never really could recover. Lockie Ferguson (2/35), Mitchell Santner (2/22) and Rachin Ravindra (2/21) were the other wicket-takers for New Zealand as Sri Lanka were bowled out for 171 in 46.4 overs with Kusal Perera top-scoring for them with 51 off 28.

While a run chase of 172 was always expected to be a cake walk for a strong Kiwi batting order, any chances of a potential hiccup was eliminated upfront with a brisk 86-run stand inside 13 overs before Sri Lanka removed both the openers inside quick succession. Till the end, the 1996 World Cup winners did manage to send half the side back in the pavilion but it was yet a straightforward Kiwi win with 160 balls remaining.

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Apart from contributions from the openers Devon Conway (45 off 42) and Rachin Ravindra (42 off 34), Daryl Mitchell's 43 off 31 was the other significant contribution while Glenn Phillips (17 off 10) and Tom Latham (2* off 2) finished it off for New Zealand and put them in front for what could be a repeat of the 2019 semifinal but this time around at the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai on November 15 (Wednesday).