New Zealand vs Pakistan: T20 World Cup Super Eights – teams, start, lineups

Who: New Zealand vs Pakistan What: 2026 ICC Men’s T20 World Cup Super Eights When: Saturday, February 21, at 7pm (13:30 GMT) Where: R Premadasa Stadium, Colombo, Sri Lanka How to follow: We’ll have all the buildup on Al Jazeera Sport from 10:30 GMT in advance of our text commentary stream.

The Super Eights stage of the 2026 ICC Men’s T20 World Cup starts on Saturday with a match between two sides considered dark horses for the title, New Zealand and Pakistan. Pakistan are the previous winners of the competition, but sit outside those ranked as favourites in this edition, as do New Zealand. Both, however, have the capability of taking down the game’s top names in an instant.

Al Jazeera Sport takes a look at the match-up between two of the pretenders for the crown, who will hope to lay down a marker as the second phase of the tournament gets under way.

Pakistan look to shake ‘nearly men’ tag with T20 World Cup crown in sight Shadab Khan said Pakistan believed they could go on and win the T20 World Cup after producing their best performance of the tournament to secure their last Super Eights berth on Wednesday.

Bowling out Namibia for 97 to win by a colossal 102 runs in Colombo meant Pakistan bounced back in style after a defeat to archrivals India had left them in danger of elimination. “We didn’t take the [Namibia] game lightly after so much talk about one match against India,” said Shadab, who scored a brisk 22-ball 36 and grabbed 3-19 in the match against the Africans.

“We are on the right track to achieve the goal of winning the World Cup, and we are following a process,” he added. Shadab warned that the Super Eights, however, will be a step up with England and co-hosts Sri Lanka awaiting Pakistan after the New Zealand test. “There are eight good teams, so it will be a tough stage, and all matches will be high-pressure games,” said Shadab.

How did Pakistan reach the T20 World Cup Super Eights? Pakistan rode on an undefeated maiden T20 international century by opener Sahibzada Farhan to post 199-3 in their win against Namibia. Spinners Usman Tariq and Shadab Khan then shared seven wickets to rout Namibia in 17.3 overs.

It was a performance Pakistan desperately needed, as well as result, after an underwhelming win against the Netherlands to open their tournament. The victory against the USA that followed – avenging their 2024 edition reverse – was an improvement, but the hammering by India left a lot to be desired. How did New Zealand reach the T20 World Cup Super Eights?

New Zealand capped their group stage with an eight-wicket win against Canada, but a scare was handed to the Kiwis by Canadian opener Yuvraj Samra scintillating 110 off 65 balls. Glenn Phillips (76) and Rachin Ravindra (59) smashed ⁠unbeaten half-centuries as New Zealand chased down a target of 174 with 4.5 overs to spare for their third win in four matches.

It followed a heavy seven-wicket defeat by group winners South Africa, and victories against Afghanistan and the United Arab Emirates. Group leaders South Africa had already advanced to ⁠the Super Eights after a hat-trick of wins. Why didn’t Mitchell Santner captain New Zealand against Canada? New Zealand T20 captain and key spinner, Mitchell Santner, sat out the win against Canada due to illness.