Australia's narrow win over Afghanistan on Friday sent New Zealand through to the T20 World Cup semi-finals and set England a straightforward target to join them.
England need only a victory against Sri Lanka in Saturday's final Group 1 match to be sure of a place in the last four.
Hosts and defending champions Australia had been facing an uphill battle to improve their run rate ever since an 89-run thrashing at the hands of the Black Caps in their opener.
With their meeting with England rained off, the margin of victory in other matches was going to prove pivotal.
Although Australia survived a scare in beating Afghanistan by four runs, that tight affair left their net run rate at -0.173, below England's mark of +0.547, which will improve further with victory over Sri Lanka.
The home nation therefore need Sri Lanka to defeat England and keep them in the top two on seven points.
Stand-in Australia captain Matthew Wade said: "We'll stay the extra night here and watch that game. We'll be hoping for a little bit of an upset there, obviously.
"That's tournament play – we put ourselves in this situation straight from the get-go this time. Although we've been trying to chase a little bit of run rate, it just hasn't really gone our way.
"We've been a little bit slow getting out of the blocks in this tournament. Hopefully it doesn't cost us."
Glenn Maxwell struck a similar tone, saying: "We'll certainly be following it. We've obviously put ourselves in this situation, but hopefully Sri Lanka can do the job for us."
Although Maxwell scored an unbeaten 54 off 32 against Afghanistan, he added: "It was quite hard to press the issue.
"We probably got to about the 12-over mark, where we just had to put a total on the board to make sure we gave ourselves a chance of winning the game.
"Even though we were trying to go hard at the back end, they bowled extremely well."
If Sri Lanka can do Australia a huge favour, Wade is "very hopeful" skipper Aaron Finch and all-rounder Tim David will return for the semi-finals.
David was "really, really close" but failed a late fitness test on Friday, Wade added.
Cornwall takes four as Leewards takes lead over Guyana at Providence
Rahkeem Cornwall took four wickets as the Leeward Islands Hurricanes shot out Guyana Harpy Eagles for 122 at Providence on the opening day of their match at Providence. At stumps, the Leewards were 133-5, a lead of 11.
Opener Matthew Nandu was the top scorer for Guyana as Cornwall took 4-27 while Javier Spencer 2-35 and Colin Archibald 2-27.
In reply, opener Kieran Powell and Keacy Carty shared in a second-wicket partnership of 69 but after Kevin Sinclair dismissed Powell for 35, the Leewards slipped from 73-2 to 84-4 with Carty and Devon Thomas losing their wickets to Veersammy Permaul for 23 and two, respectively.
Anthony Adams was dismissed by Anthony Adams for 10 with the Leewards still 18 runs behind.
Howeverm Jahmar Hamilton (35) and Kofi James (9) took the Leewards beyond Guyana’s score and have so far put on 29 for the sixth wicket when play concluded for the day.
Permaul has so far taken 2-31.
Hinds and Phillips repel Scorpions bowling to make 302; Scorpions 5-1 at stumps
Terrance Hinds and Anderson Phillip each scored crucial half-centuries to rescue Trinidad and Tobago Red Force from 119-7 to 302 all out against the Jamaica Scorpions at Torouba on Thursday. At stumps, the Scorpions had already a lost a wicket with only five runs on the board.
Trinidad were in trouble on 119-7 with only Tion Webster (30) and Joshua Da Silva (39) making useful contributions against the bowling of Marquino Mindley, Ojay Shields and Derval Green doing the early damage.
However, Hinds and Bryan Charles began the fightback with a 66-run partnership for the eighth wicket which took the Red Force to 185 when Charles was dismissed for only nine. A bigger partnership was to follow between Hinds and Phillip, who put on exactly 100 for the ninth wicket.
Hinds, who looked certain to make a hundred, was eventually dismissed for 94 by Shields who finished with 2-72.
Phillips and Shannon Gabriel took the score past 300 before Jeavor Royal dismissed Gabriel for 10, leaving Phillips unbeaten on 63.
Green took 3-56, Royal 2-60 and Mindley 2-56.
Phillip dismissed Tevin Gilzene for one to close out the day.
Jordan's 5-44 restricts Windward Islands Volcanoes to 237 despite Athanaze, Walcott half-centuries
Alick Athanaze and Tevyn Walcott both scored half-centuries but Akeem Jordan’s five-wicket haul restricted the Windward Islands Volcanoes to a first-innings score of 237 on the opening day of their fifth-round West Indies Championship match against Barbados Pride at Queens Park Oval on Thursday.
At stumps, Barbados were 48-0, trailing by 189 runs.
Athanaze, who has been in good form all season, scored 59 while rescuing the Volcanoes from a tenuous 17-3. He and Sunil Ambris added 47 for the fourth wicket. Ambris was trapped lbw by Roshon Primus for 28 after Windwards Islands Volcanoes recovered somewhat to 64-4.
Athanaze was to feature in another solid partnership, this time 98 with Walcott for the fifth wicket that added further stability to the score. However, Akeem Jordan who earlier picked up the wickets of openers Kimani Melius for a duck and Johann Jeremiah for 11, snapped up the wickets of Walcott for 55 and then Athanaze for 59 as the Windwards slipped to 164-6.
Primus made it 166-7 when he dismissed Larry Edward for one.
After Jordan dismissed Kenneth Dember for six and Jomel Warrican removed Sherman Lewis for nine, Ryan John and Preston McSween added 31 before Warrican ended John’s resolute innings for 41.
Jordan returned figures of 5-44 with Primus supporting with 2-44 and Warrican 2-57.
At the close, Barbados were 48-0 with Zachary McCaskie and Sheyne Moseley, the batsmen at the crease on 21 and 26, respectively.
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