Having lost the opportunity to make the semi-finals on his own terms, New Zealand captain Mitchell Santner admitted the the team will be "nervous" on Saturday while watching Pakistan take on Sri Lanka in Pallekele.
A Sri Lanka win would confirm New Zealand journey to Kolkata to play in the first semi-final. Pakistan need to overturn both Sri Lanka and some stiff net-run-rate calculations to deny New Zealand.
Speaking after the last-over defeat to England, Santner said New Zealand would feel the pressure while looking on from afar. "Pretty nervous," he said. "There'll be some nerves watching tomorrow, just to see what happens. But it's out of our control, we can't really do much. We are just going to wait and see, and either get on a plane to India or New Zealand. We would have made things a lot easier if we won tonight."
With England needing 43 from last 18 balls, New Zealand were firm favourites to make the semi-finals. But the tables turned in the 18th over, delivered by Glenn Phillips, who was blasted by the pair of Will Jacks and Rehan Ahmed for 21 runs. "We had it in our control," Santner said. "We did a lot of good stuff throughout this game, and even in the last couple of games, but it's always those little moments at the end, or throughout our innings, where it could have been a little bit sharper, whether it's execution or in the field. But credit to England for setting up that chase like they did."
In Santner's opinion, the key reason England managed to regain control of the game and win it was because of their batters, with Jacks and Rehan taking "good options". "The way [the batters] attacked the last overs of our spinners was [because] they took very good options. The flip side with us at the death while batting was we tried to go a bit squarer where they [England] looked to go straighter. Those are the kind of things you can look back on especially in a tight game like that: whether it's a matter of a few runs or whether it is stopping a two or a catching opportunity or something like that."
Santner was New Zealand's best bowler, with his first three overs going for just 13 runs. His final over was the penultimate one of the match, with England still needing 21 runs. Asked whether he had thought of bowling the 18th, Santner said the plan was for both him and fellow left-arm spinner Rachin Ravindra to operate from the Maligawatta End because of the shorter leg-side boundary for the right-hand pair of Jacks and Rehan.
"Me and Rachin bowled with the short boundary to the leg side, [that] was going to be a tougher option to close out for maybe another spinner or a seamer," Santner said. "It was always going to be that one over... [Jacks] bowled a good over for England towards the end [the 18th] from that end [the Khettarama End]. But they [England] had two guys sitting there getting ready to go. It was a tough over to bowl for Glenn. Jacks has shown he's a good finisher now. I know he hasn't done it for a long time, but he's pretty good at it."
New Zealand's grip over the match started loosening in the last six overs of their batting. After 14 overs New Zealand were 123 for 3, but they would end up adding a meagre 36 runs from as many balls, settling for a below-part target. "We set up a pretty good platform and at the second time-out we decided to set up a 180 versus a 160," Santner said.
This is the second match in a row where New Zealand's batters have struggled in the middle overs, having wobbled at 84 for 6 against Sri Lanka on the same pitch, albeit with more spin, on Wednesday evening. New Zealand still managed to get to a good target then, courtesy Santner and Cole McConchie, as the pair outsmarted Sri Lanka's bowlers tactically by attacking the shorter leg-side boundary and looting 70 runs in the final four overs.
However, New Zealand stuttered on Friday as England's five-strong spin attack showed more discipline. "In the game against Sri Lanka, we lost wickets in clumps through the middle," Santner said. "We obviously had a good last four overs with the bat. And then today was the opposite. We put ourselves in a good platform, but the England spinners made us take tougher options than probably what [Sri Lanka] did for us at the end. It's a close one. You could obviously say we should have defended those last three overs or with the bat we could have potentially got more runs as well."
Santner said Harry Brook's team, despite not being the most fluent at this World Cup, were now dangerous opponents, who he wouldn't want to face in the semi-finals. "If you can get yourselves out of tricky positions and end up winning games, it does a lot for the team, a lot for confidence. There's no better team to fight and find a way to win from than England. We've seen that a little bit throughout this tournament. They are hitting these straps at the right time for the tournament.
"To win all three games here [in the Super Eight] is a very good effort. And, they'll be flying into those semis, whoever they play. It's different guys stepping up at different times as well, which is what you want. Everyone's kind of chipping in. There's obviously a few guys at the top that potentially want some runs, but it just means they are due and they are probably going to get it next game. So yeah, I wouldn't want to be facing England if I was in the semis."