New Zealand skipper Kane Williamson posted a half century and his spinners checked Ireland’s scoring rate in a 35-run win Friday that gave the Black Caps a strong chance of securing a semifinal spot at the Twenty20 World Cup.

Williamson scored 61 off 35 balls as New Zealand reached 185-6 after being sent in to bat, his innings negating Ireland pace bowlers Josh Little’s hat trick — only the second of this tournament.

Ireland was restricted to 150-9 in reply, with Lockie Ferguson taking 3-22 for New Zealand while spinners Mitchell Santner (2-26) and Ish Sodhi (2-31) took key wickets at the top of the order.

New Zealand has seven points from five games and its high net run-rate of 2.113 makes it favorite to finish atop Group 1 ahead of England and Australia.

The Australians were without skipper Aaron Finch for their last Super 12 game against Afghanistan later Friday, when they needed to win by a big margin to improve their chances of qualification. England will play Sri Lanka in Sydney on Saturday.

Afghanistan won the toss and opted to field. Matthew Wade was leading Australia in the absence of Finch, who was ruled out with a hamstring injury.

New Zealand started against Ireland knowing it needed a win to keep its chances of advancing alive.