KOLKATA – England won the toss and decided to bat first against Pakistan as the team green eye big margin victory that will boost their net run rate by enough to leapfrog New Zealand into the critical fourth place at the ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup.
The match will be played at Eden Gardens, Kolkata, at 1:30PM local time.
Pakistan have it all to play for as they meet England needing to win by a significant margin to not only match New Zealand on 10 points but also overtake their net run rate.
The equation is simple for Pakistan but that doesn’t make it any easier – bat first and win by 287 runs or more, to snatch fourth place and set up a mouth-watering semi-final clash with arch-rivals India.
Pakistan can hold onto some hope of the unlikely result if their top order can pick up where they left off against New Zealand, when Fakhar Zaman (126*) and Babar Azam (66*) propelled them to 200/1 from only 25.3 overs.
That was enough for Pakistan to clinch victory over New Zealand by 21 runs under the DLS method even while chasing 402, and set up a crunch clash against England with their slim semi-final hopes on the line.
While Pakistan have lofty goals, England enter the encounter with their own motivations for the future as they look to secure a spot in the next ICC Champions Trophy.
Squads
England: Jos Buttler (c), Moeen Ali, Gus Atkinson, Jonny Bairstow, Sam Curran, Liam Livingstone, Dawid Malan, Adil Rashid, Joe Root, Harry Brook, Ben Stokes, Brydon Carse, David Willey, Mark Wood, Chris Woakes.
Pakistan: Babar Azam (c), Shadab Khan, Fakhar Zaman, Imam-ul-Haq, Abdullah Shafique, Mohammad Rizwan, Saud Shakeel, Iftikhar Ahmed, Salman Ali Agha, Mohammad Nawaz, Usama Mir, Haris Rauf, Hasan Ali, Shaheen Afridi, Mohammad Wasim.
