Salman Agha-led Pakistan has been officially knocked out of the T20 World Cup 2026 tournament despite their crucial 5-run victory against Sri Lanka at Pallekele.
They ended up with equal points with New Zealand, who qualified due to a better run rate. New Zealand will be joining England and South Africa in the knockout stages of the T20 World Cup.
Pakistan were in the top during Sri Lanka’s 213 run chase at Pallekele. Needing to restrict then below 147 runs, Pakistan were in game till 12th over as Sri Lanka lost 5 wickets to score 101 runs.
However they couldn’t control the runs leaking becoming the third team to exit the tournament after Sri Lanka and Zimbabwe.
“Was always challenging after losing the toss, because of dew,” Pakistan captain Salman Agha explained. “It could have been a different story had we won the toss. Dew was a factor. We couldn’t execute plans.”
Despite Pakistan being knocked out of the tournament, Sahibzada Farhan smashed a century to finish his campaign with 383 runs which is the most ever run by a player in a single edition of the tournament.
Farhan is the current leader in the most runs scorer in the T20 World Cup 2026. Apart from him Fakhar Zaman made a crucial knock in the game to score 212 runs in the 20 overs.
𝙎𝙚𝙢𝙞-𝙛𝙞𝙣𝙖𝙡 𝙗𝙤𝙪𝙣𝙙 🇳🇿
New Zealand seal their spot among the final four at the #T20WorldCup 👏 pic.twitter.com/6cQSUtPw8Z
— T20 World Cup (@T20WorldCup) February 28, 2026
“We couldn’t bat well throughout the tournament,” Salman Agha summed up. “If Farhan had more support, it would have been better. The middle order has been a problem for a few years now, we’ll have to look at that.”
“We couldn’t finish the way we wanted to. We batted well for 18 overs, opposition did well in the other two.”
Pakistan’s super 8 game against New Zealand has ended in a washout as both sides was awarded with a point.
In the second Super 8s game against England, they failed to defend the target of 165 runs where Harry Brook came up with a hundred to make a clinical 2-wicket victory.
With Pakistan’s knock out, the first semi finals and Finals will be played in India.
The first semi-finals will be held at Eden Gardens, while the second will be played at the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai. The T20 World Cup 2026 finals will be played on March 08 at Narendra Modi Cricket Stadium.
The fourth semifinalist of the T20 World Cup will be decided by the result of India vs West Indies match played on March 01 at Eden Gardens.
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