Kane Williamson’s half-century and spin-bowling attack led the Black Caps to a 35-run victory at the Adelaide Oval, sealing one of the top two spots in Group 1 and making it to the last four.
Glenn Maxwell scored an unbeaten half-century and spinner Adam Zampa played a crucial 2-22 innings as defending champions Australia later joined New Zealand on seven points after a just four-run win over the Afghans at the same venue.
However, it was not enough to raise the net run rate of England, who now need to beat Sri Lanka in their final Super 12 match in Sydney on Saturday to take another semi-final berth from the group.
“Afghanistan played really well but luckily we managed to catch them back,” Maxwell said.
“We have put ourselves in this position but hopefully the Sri Lankans can work for us.”
At one stage in Afghanistan’s response to Australia’s 168-8, it looked like the home team might not even get the win they needed to survive their tournament.
Three wickets in Zampa’s fourth over – Maxwell’s first run out from a straight hit – broke the 59-run partnership between Gulbadin Naib (39) and Ibrahim Zadran (26) and helped the Afghans go from 99-2 to 99-5.
Rashid Khan revived his team’s chase with four sixes in his 48-run stand, but he came short in the final over as Afghanistan finished 164-7 and did not win the tournament.
Australia first came to bat with a lot of intent after Aaron Finch and Tim David were out with hamstring strains, a much changed team and a stand-in captain in Matt Wade.
Cameron Green and Steve Smith came into the squad, but neither of them lasted long and David Warner (25), Mitchell Marsh (45) and Maxwell (54) needed Australia to try to score big runs. was abandoned.
Earlier, New Zealand’s batsmen scored 185 for six after Ireland opted to field, before Black Caps bowlers restricted the Irish to 150 for nine.
Ireland are out of the World Cup but returned home with pride after a solid tournament with a brilliant hat-trick from pacer Josh Little.
Left-hander Little caught skipper Williamson for 61, then got both James Neesham and Mitchell Santner out lbw for no scores in the 19th over to score Ireland’s second hat-trick in T20 Internationals.
However, the damage was already done by Williamson and middle-order batsman Daryl Mitchell (31 not out).
Paul Stirling and Andy Balbirnie gave Ireland a fighting chance but left-arm spinner Santner broke the 68-run partnership when he cut Balbirnie to his stumps.
“It’s good because we have a few days now and people will be able to relax,” Williamson said. “Look at what’s going on in the other matches tomorrow and see how it goes.”
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