India require to beat Lanka at least by 20 runs

STAFF WRITER 19:1 HRS IST

St Lucia, May 10 (PTI) A win alone is not sufficient for India to qualify for semifinals and they will have to beat Sri Lanka by a minimum of 20 runs on batting first and with 2.1 to three overs to spare on batting second in their last Super Eights clash of the T20 World Cup here tomorrow.

Not only India need to win big tomorrow but also require Australia to beat hosts the West Indies in the second match of the day.

And if Australia beat West Indies even by one run, India will be through.

India need to boost their net run-rate which is a dismal -1.578.

However, despite losing to Australia by a huge margin of 81 runs, Sri Lanka have a NRR of -0.600 while West Indies' NRR is -1.057.

England beat New Zealand to take Pakistan in semis

STAFF WRITER 2:5 HRS IST

Gros Islet (St Lucia), May 10 (PTI) Assured of a berth in the last four stage, England edged out New Zealand by three wickets in a Super Eight match to clear Pakistan's semifinal passage as well in the Twenty20 World Cup here today.

After Pakistan beat South Africa at the same venue a few hours before to rekindle their semifinal hopes, New Zealand desperately needed a win to qualify as the second team from Group E but today's defeat and an inferior net run-rate saw them being pipped to the post by Shahid Afridi and his men.

Paul Collingwood and his men showed they were in no mood to entertain the Kiwi hopes as they first restricted New Zealand to 149 for six and then cruised to 153 for seven in 19.1 overs.

England's successful chase was built on cameos from Eoin Morgan (40 off 34 balls) and Michael Lumb (32).