Cricket World Cup 2023: India, England, Australia & New Zealand in action

A weekend of intriguing match-ups at the Cricket World Cup will do plenty to help settle the semi-final places.

Hosts India will all but seal their spot with victory over beleaguered England, while Australia can take a big stride when they meet New Zealand.

Even a defeat in Lucknow on Sunday would not officially herald England's exit, but the defence of their title is already as good as over.

Bangladesh also meet the Netherlands in Kolkata on Saturday (09:30 BST).

Australia, the five-time champions, have bounced back from losing their opening two games with three successive wins and sit fourth in the table, two points behind New Zealand.

The Black Caps, runners-up in the past two World Cups, have lost only to India so far.

Even with two weeks of the lengthy group stage left, it is looking likely that the current top four - South Africa, India, New Zealand and Australia - will contest the semi-finals.

• 'A mess from the start - now England's World Cup is over'

A New Zealand win over their Trans-Tasman rivals in Dharamsala on Saturday (06:00 BST) will do much to seal their spot, while an Australia win would put daylight between Pat Cummins' side and the rest.

"In the first two games not only did we not win, but I think we didn't really nail the style that we wanted to play," said Cummins.

"In the last few games you've seen us be a bit more aggressive - batting and bowling. That's a standard we want to keep going with for the rest of tournament."

Australia could have batter Travis Head available for the first time in the tournament following his recovery from a broken hand.

For New Zealand, Tom Latham continues to lead in the absence of Kane Williamson, who has a broken thumb.

In the build-up to the game at the picturesque Dharamsala ground, the Black Caps have visited the residence of the Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama.

"It was a cool experience for the group to head up there," said stand-in skipper Tom Latham. "Everyone that went will look back and I'm sure in years to come will think this was obviously an amazing experience."

India can make it six wins from six when they meet England in Lucknow on Sunday (08:30 GMT).

The hosts are the only unbeaten team left in the competition and realistically only need one win from their final four games to be assured of a place in the semi-finals.

England's miserable defeat by Sri Lanka on Thursday was their fourth in five games. Even if they beat India and go on to win their final three games, an unlikely sequence of results would be needed in other matches to take Jos Buttler's side through.

Indeed, captain Buttler and coach Matthew Mott have already admitted England are heading for the exit.

"Whatever happens from here on in in the tournament, whoever we play, we want to play good, hard games of cricket and play well and get back to playing the way we know we can," said Buttler.

"It looks like it could it could need a few miracles - we'd have to win every game and things go our way to progress further in this tournament. But for the games that we have left, we want to play the cricket we know we can play."

Both Bangladesh and the Netherlands are set to head out too, but the Dutch are looking for another upset after their shock win over South Africa earlier in the tournament.

"We're targeting to win every game," said Netherlands captain Scott Edwards. "It's obviously a big game, as big as any game we come up [against]."