New Zealand thumped Sri Lanka to book their tickets for the semifinal of ICC men's Cricket World Cup 2023. Trent Boult's deadly 3 fer, aided by Lockie Ferguson, Mitchell Santner and Rachin Ravindra's 2 wickets each helped New Zealand bundle Sri Lanka out for 171, which New Zealand chased down very comfortably later.

Earlier, New Zealand won the toss and they chose to bowl first. Trent Boult ran riot through the Lankan batting lineup with his fiery spell. He sent Nissanka and Kusal Mendis packing, and left Sri Lanka stuttering for 30-2. Kusal Perera was smacking the Kiwis hard and raced 50 off just 22 balls, fastest by any batter of this world cup. But fell to Boult at a wrong time.

Kiwi spinners then ripped through Lankan batting lineup and at one point they were crumbling on 128-9. A spirited Theekshana helped them post 171 on the board. Boult took 3 wickets and Ferguson, Santner and Rachin got 2 each. 

In reply, Kiwis started nicely with Devon Conway hitting the Lankan everywhere of the park. The opening duo of Conway and Rachin notched up 50 run stand together and stretched it to 86 before Conway fell short of his half century. Rachin too fell 8 short of his 50. Daryl Mitchell was quick and tried to finish the game as soon as possible. New Zealand chased down the total inside 24 overs and buried the dream of Pakistan and Afghanistan to play semis.