{"id":6695,"date":"2026-02-27T17:51:55","date_gmt":"2026-02-27T17:51:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/foreignnewstoday.com\/?p=6695"},"modified":"2026-02-27T17:51:55","modified_gmt":"2026-02-27T17:51:55","slug":"t20-world-cup-ahmed-jacks-blast-england-to-thrilling-win-over-new-zealand-keeping-pakistans-slender-hopes-alive","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/foreignnewstoday.com\/?p=6695","title":{"rendered":"T20 World Cup: Ahmed, Jacks blast England to thrilling win over New Zealand, keeping Pakistan\u2019s slender hopes alive"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><br \/>\n<br \/><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/i.dawn.com\/large\/2026\/02\/27223812399866d.webp\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Rehan Ahmed and Will Jacks smashed 44 off 16 balls to take England to a thrilling four-wicket T20 World Cup win in Colombo that denied New Zealand a guaranteed place in the semi-finals but kept Pakistan\u2019s slender hopes alive.<\/p>\n<p>New Zealand would have joined England in the knockouts with a win in their final Super Eights match and they scored 159-6 after opting to bat.<\/p>\n<p>England lost wickets early and looked like they would be squeezed out at 117-6, needing 43 from the last three overs.<\/p>\n<p>But Ahmed and Jacks took 22 off the 18th over from Glenn Phillips to turn the match on its head.<\/p>\n<p>Ahmed blasted 19 off seven balls in his first T20 World Cup match alongside Jacks, who made an unbeaten 32 off 18, to see England to 161-6 with three balls to spare.<\/p>\n<p>England will move on to a semi-final in Mumbai on Thursday against either India or the West Indies, who clash on Sunday to decide the final semi-final berth.<\/p>\n<p>New Zealand now have to wait on the outcome of Saturday\u2019s clash between Sri Lanka and Pakistan in Kandy to know if they have qualified for a semi-final in Kolkata against South Africa.<\/p>\n<p>Pakistan have an inferior run rate so they need to win by 64 runs or inside 13 overs to overtake the Kiwis and deny them a place in the final four. If Pakistan qualify, then the semi-final would be played in Colombo.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"media  w-full  w-full  media--left    media--uneven  media--stretch\" data-original-src=\"https:\/\/x.com\/ESPNcricinfo\/status\/2027430097742168326?s=20\">\n<div class=\"media__item  media__item--twitter  \"><span><\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" lang=\"en\"><p>\n        <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/ESPNcricinfo\/status\/2027430097742168326?s=20\"><\/a>\n    <\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><\/span><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<p>England used five spinners to bowl 16 of the 20 overs on a turning track.<\/p>\n<p>The 2010 and 2022 champions had never bowled so many overs of spin before in a T20 international.<\/p>\n<p>Jacks returned the best figures with 2-23, while Adil Rashid picked up 2-28 and is now England\u2019s leading wicket-taker in the tournament with 11.<\/p>\n<p>Rashid was complemented by fellow wrist spinner Ahmed, who was called up in place of Jamie Overton, and took a wicket with his first ball before finishing with 2-28 from three overs.<\/p>\n<p>Glenn Phillips top scored with 39 off 28, including four fours and a six, while opener Tim Seifert scored 35.<\/p>\n<p>Liam Dawson (1-32) and Jacob Bethell (0-13) were the other spinners employed by England.<\/p>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><br \/>\n<br \/><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.dawn.com\/news\/1976207\/t20-world-cup-ahmed-jacks-blast-england-to-thrilling-win-over-new-zealand-keeping-pakistans-slender-hopes-alive\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Rehan Ahmed and Will Jacks smashed 44 off 16 balls to take England to a thrilling four-wicket T20 World Cup win in Colombo that denied New&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":6696,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6695","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-entertaonment"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/foreignnewstoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6695","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/foreignnewstoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/foreignnewstoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/foreignnewstoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/foreignnewstoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6695"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/foreignnewstoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6695\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/foreignnewstoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/6696"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/foreignnewstoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6695"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/foreignnewstoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6695"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/foreignnewstoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6695"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}