T20 World Cup: New Zealand beat Ireland to edge towards semi-final

ICC Men's T20 World Cup Group 1 Adelaide, New Zealand 185-6 (20 overs): Williamson 61 (35); Little 3-22, Delany 2-30 Ireland 150-9 (20 overs): Stirling 37 (27); Ferguson 3-22, Santner 2-26 >Scorecard; Tables

They limited Ireland to 150-9 with pace setter Lockie Ferguson taking 3-22 and spinners Mitchell Santner and Ish Sodhi 2-26 and 2-31 respectively.

New Zealand captain Kane Williamson was the top scorer with 61 from 35 while scoring 185-6, while Josh Little scored a hat-trick for Ireland in 19th.

Kiwis are lead Group 1 with seven points, having played all of their matches.

However, they are not assured of their passage at this stage because Australia, who will face Afghanistan at 08:00 GMT on Friday, and England, who face Sri Lanka at 08:00 GMT on Saturday, are in a position to pass them on net pace if they win those games.

However, this is unlikely with New Zealand's much higher net run rate meaning they are likely to progress as group winners .

Sri Lanka can also reach the semi-finals. They need Afghanistan first to beat Australia. If that happened, a win over England would see them through as runners-up New Zealand.

Ireland are now officially excluded from the competition and will finish fifth or sixth in the group, depending on Afghanistan's result in their last game.

It was an impressive campaign from Andrew Balbirnie, beating West Indies in the initial qualifying stage and then England in the Super 12.