New Zealand captain Mitchell Santner admitted his side missed a chance to seal their semifinal berth after slipping to a four-wicket defeat against England in their Super Eights clash on Friday.

The loss has left the Kiwis’ fate hanging in the balance. Already-qualified England’s victory has kept Pakistan in contention, with the latter needing a comprehensive win over Sri Lanka on Saturday to leapfrog New Zealand on net run rate and secure a semifinal spot.

“That was a good match. Obviously, it would have made our lives easier if we had won,” Santner said at the post-match presentation. “But we played a pretty good game. There were moments with both bat and ball where we could have turned it our way.”

Santner felt New Zealand fell slightly short with the bat despite setting up a strong platform.

“Credit to England for the way they played. We built a good base and were targeting the last few overs, but we lost a few wickets there. We just scraped to 160. It could easily have been 170 or 175. At the end, when they needed 40 off the last three overs, they executed really well.”

He added that while New Zealand had lost wickets at regular intervals in previous outings, this time they were well-placed before faltering late.

“Tonight we had a platform and were in a good spot after the time-out, but maybe we took a few tough options straight away. We were thinking 170 or 175 would have been a very good score.”

As for the qualification equation, Pakistan must win by 65 runs if they bat first, or chase down the target within 13.1 overs, to surpass New Zealand on net run rate.

Also Read: 3 Key Player Battles As New Zealand Fight for Survival Against a Clinical England

England captain Harry Brook lavished praise on leg-spinner Rehan Ahmed, who returned figures of 2/28 before smashing an unbeaten 19 off just seven balls to guide his side home alongside Will Jacks (32 not out off 18).

“We’ve seen what Reh can do in the nets, and he went out and played beautifully, taking the game away from them,” Brook said. “Along with Jacksy, his fourth Player of the Match. I’m pretty happy with that performance. We said at the start we’d select based on conditions, and today was the perfect opportunity to bring him in. He did an amazing job.”

Brook also acknowledged the quality of the opposition.

“New Zealand are a very strong side. We played them before Christmas; they do everything well, especially running between the wickets and hitting with extreme power.”

Despite another failure from veteran wicketkeeper-batter Jos Buttler, who was dismissed for a duck, Brook threw his support behind the former captain.

“He’s played 150 games for England. People need to take a step back. He’s in a bit of a rut, but that’s the exciting thing, you know what he can produce in the next couple of games. He’s a phenomenal player and I’ve got no doubts about him.”