Pakistan knocked out of 2019 World Cup

Pakistan have been knocked out of the ongoing 2019 International Cricket Council (ICC) World Cup in England and Wales. 

Pakistan needed to dismiss Bangladesh for seven runs, after setting them a target of 316 runs at Lord’s on Friday, in order to qualify for the semi-finals of the mega event ahead of New Zealand on basis of a better net run-rate. 

Net run-rate can only be boosted by so much if a team is chasing a target, and in Pakistan's case it would not be enough for them to top New Zealand.

The top four at the end of the 10-team round-robin phase advance to the knockouts.

Victory would draw Pakistan level on 11 points with fourth-placed New Zealand.

If two sides are level on points at the end of the group stage, the team with more wins goes through.

But a Pakistan success would mean both they and New Zealand had won five of their nine pool matches.

The next tie-breaker is net run-rate and New Zealand have a huge advantage at +0.175 compared with Pakistan's -0.792, which is in part a consequence of Pakistan's heavy defeat by the West Indies in their opening match, when they were skittled out for just 105.

An International Cricket Council spokesman defended the use of net run-rate in major tournaments, telling AFP: "Net run-rate is the second determining factor for league stage standings, with the number of wins the first criteria. Over nine games, with each team playing one another, net run-rate provides the fairest reflection of performance across the entire tournament in the event of both sides recording equal match results.”

The spokesman added: "All competing sides were consulted at length and agreed the playing conditions before the start of the tournament. Historically, net run-rate has been the accepted determining criteria for one-day league cricket."