New Zealand captain Mitchell Santner admitted their T20 World Cup semi-final fate is "out of our control", with defeat to England leaving them with a "nervous" wait.

The Black Caps suffered a four-wicket loss to England in their final Super 8s game, having been in a commanding position to book their place in the final four.

After posting a score of 159-7, New Zealand looked in control when they dropped England to 2-2, 58-4 and 117-6, but Brendon McCullum's side got the 43 runs they needed from the final three overs to clinch a dramatic win.

And now New Zealand have to wait until Saturday to find out if they will be playing in the final four, with Pakistan having the chance to qualify at their expense if they beat Sri Lanka, though they will need a handsome victory due to the Black Caps boasting a superior run-rate.

"Pretty nervous," Santner said of having to wait to find out if their tournament was over.

"There'll be some nerves watching [Pakistan], just to see what happens. But it's out of our control; we can't really do much.

"We are just going to wait and see, and either get on a plane to India or New Zealand. We would have made things a lot easier if we won."

Defeat in Colombo.

We wait for the final match of group 2 between Pakistan and Sri Lanka to see what happens next.

= ICC/Getty#T20WorldCup #NZvENG pic.twitter.com/fQxfALhE83

— BLACKCAPS (@BLACKCAPS) February 27, 2026

While New Zealand's grip on the tie slipped during the final few overs – Glenn Phillips was hit for 22 in the 18th over as Will Jacks and Rehan Ahmed powered England to victory – they had the chance to put the match to bed at the end of their innings.

They got just 36 runs across the final six overs, marking the second match in a row where their middle order has struggled, and Santner lamented their failure to keep the momentum on their side.

"We did a lot of good stuff throughout this game, and even in the last couple of games, but it's always those little moments at the end, or throughout our innings, where it could have been a little bit sharper, whether it's execution or in the field," he said.

"In the game against Sri Lanka, we lost wickets in clumps through the middle. We obviously had a good last four overs with the bat.

"This was the opposite. We put ourselves on a good platform, but the England spinners made us take tougher options than probably what the English batters did for us at the end.

"It's a close one. You could obviously say we should have defended those last three overs, or with the bat we could have potentially got more runs as well."