New Zealand thrash Sri Lanka to push Pakistan and Afghanistan towards World Cup exit

Pakistan and Afghanistan fans were hoping for a favour from Sri Lanka. They should know by now they cannot be relied on.

They could at least have put up a fight. Instead, the beleaguered Sri Lankans subsided to such a hefty defeat against New Zealand, it has all but settled the World Cup semi-final places with four matches still left to play.

It was a hammering from start to finish, and ended with the Black Caps strolling to a five-wicket win with nearly 27 overs to spare in Bengaluru.

It has basically rendered the game between Afghanistan and South Africa tomorrow as meaningless. The same with Australia v Bangladesh, Pakistan v England and India v Netherlands.

The Afghans and Pakistan can still match the points tally of New Zealand, but it would take something fanciful for either to overhaul their net run rate.

At 0.74, the Kiwis’ NRR is 0.7 superior to that of Pakistan and 1.08 better than Afghanistan, ahead of the final group game for those two sides.

It means Afghanistan need to win by 438 runs against second-placed South Africa to surpass New Zealand on NRR. Pakistan have to win by 287 or, chase what England make in two or three overs. All equally far-fetched.

When those two sides needed something to go their way, what they saw was another entirely supine display by the Sri Lankans.

So poor has their form been in recent months, it has felt like Sri Lanka have been protesting against the continuation of ODI cricket, rather than trying to prolong its life. Twice in their previous nine ODIs they failed to bat through 20 overs.

They appeared set for the same fate at the start of this one, too. They were five down inside 10 overs, and seven down within 19.

New Zealand made a solid push to affirm their place in the top