Nothing less than a miracle will help Pakistan as they face a near-impossible task of making the semifinals by winning an unthinkable margin, while a charged-up England will look to qualify for the Champions Trophy when the two sides clash in the World Cup in Kolkata on Saturday.
New Zealand's net run-rate boosting five wicket-win over Sri Lanka has virtually shattered Pakistan's semifinal hopes. The 1992 champions now have to beat England by an improbable margin.
New Zealand's NRR is +0.743 while Pakistan's is +0.036, and for the Babar Azam-led side to eclipse the former to qualify as the fourth side, it has to win by around 287 runs batting first. While chasing, Pakistan need to win with 284 balls to spare. That is an impractical task.
Pakistan have failed to live up to the expectations in this World Cup but have showed some late surge in the last two matches to stay alive. Having played two matches already at the Eden Gardens, Pakistan have better knowledge about the conditions which has been slow and spin-friendly during the middle overs.
But they would still need their top-five to fire, which has not been the case so far. Explosive opener Fakhar Zaman, who put on a spectacular show of power-hitting against New Zealand, missing five matches has been a mystery. The left-hander has showed what he's capable of in the last two matches.
He along with Babar, in an unbroken 194-run alliance from 141 balls in their DLS win over New Zealand in the last match, have demonstrated that they can successfully tackle any equation.
For defending champions England, the World Cup title defence dream may have been over for quite a sometime now but the Jos Buttler-led side will aim to finish inside top-8 to make the cut for the 2025 Champions Trophy. As things stand, it's a four-way race with Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and the Netherlands also in the mix with England.
Their 160-run win over the Netherlands in the last match has given the down-and-out England the much-needed late charge as they have climbed up to the seventh spot and face the easiest equation among the four teams.
A win against Pakistan should seal the spot, considering that both Bangladesh and the Netherlands face tough opponents in Australia and India respectively, and also have inferior NRRs than England.
