Colombo, February 27 Still uncertain of their semifinal spot after losing by four wickets against England, New Zealand captain Mitchell Santner said the Kiwis could have made their lives easier by winning the match on Friday.
The win for England, who were already qualified for the semifinals, means that Pakistan is still alive in the tournament and needs a big win against Sri Lanka in their last Super Eights match on Saturday to overtake New Zealand in terms of run rate and secure their semifinal berth.
"That was a good match. Obviously, it would have made our lives easier if we had won. But again, we played a pretty good game. There are definitely moments, both with the bat and the ball, that you can probably look back on and kind of turn the game a little bit," Santner said at the post-match presentation.
Santner credited England for their courageous effort but felt that New Zealand were a few runs short with the bat.
"But again, credit to England and the way they played. We set up a good platform to target the last few overs and lost a few there. We only managed to score 160. It could easily have been 170 or 175. But then, obviously, you need to score 40 off the last three overs.
"And yeah, the way they were able to take wickets and, obviously, at the end, it was good. Obviously, in the other innings, we lost wickets throughout, and then, we weren't able to reach a score through, I guess, the last four overs. But, tonight, we set a good platform and are in a good position.
"And then, maybe we took some tough options right from the start. But again, you need to score runs, and we were thinking that 170 or 175 would have been a really good score," he said.
As far as the equation is concerned, if Pakistan bats first, they need to win by 65 runs, and if they chase, they need to complete the target in 13.1 overs to overtake New Zealand.
England captain Harry Brook praised leg-spinner Reehan Ahmed, who took 2/28 with the ball and then scored an unbeaten 19 off 7 balls to help England win, along with Will Jacks (32 not out off 18 balls).
"We've seen what Reh (Ahmed) can do in the nets, and he's come out and played beautifully, taking wickets. Along with Jacksy (Jacks), his fourth Player of the Match, I'm really happy with that performance. We said at the start that we'd select players based on conditions, and we thought that today was the perfect opportunity to bring him in, and he did an amazing job.
"New Zealand is a very strong team, we played against them before Christmas, and they do everything so well, running between wickets and also have extreme power."
Jos Buttler has yet to score a substantial score in the tournament, returning for another duck on Friday, but Brook backed the veteran wicketkeeper-batsman.
"A lot has been said about him (Buttler), he's played 150 games for England, and people need to take a step back from that. He's in a rut now, but that's an exciting thing – to see what he can produce in the next couple of games.
"He's a phenomenal player, and I have no doubts about him."
