(ESPNCRICINFO) – One of the advantages of a long-drawn league phase is that teams have an opportunity to make up for indifferent starts. But New Zealand are finding out the converse can be true as well. A third straight loss amid a series of injuries in the camp threatens to throw their World Cup campaign off the rails.

If the loss to Australia in Dharamsala was heartbreaking, this one to South Africa in Pune was outright demoralising. The bowlers were sent on a leather hunt as Quinton de Kock and Rassie van der Dussen plundered centuries, and David Miller added more salt to the wounds with a blistering 30-ball 53 not out as South Africa posted 357 for 4; the last 10 overs alone brought them 119 runs.

In reply, New Zealand’s top order unraveled against South Africa’s quality pace attack under lights. Marco Jansen’s extra bounce accounted for Devon Conway and Rachin Ravindra, Will Young was out nicking behind off Gerald Coetzee, and Kagiso Rabada had Tom Latham chipping one to cover.

Daryl Mitchell kept hope flickering, oozing class and confidence as he played a couple of gorgeous on-drives, but his dismissal while looking to hit out against Keshav Maharaj in the 19th over opened the floodgates. The game became staggeringly one-sided as New Zealand petered to 167 all out, with only Glenn Phillips offering any resistance to make 60.
The defeat, and the quantum of it, was massive from a tournament’s standpoint, with New Zealand now slipping back to potentially enter a logjam for fourth place, which Pakistan, Afghanistan and Sri Lanka are all eyeing. Few would have expected New Zealand to cave in the manner they did, even after South Africa had set them 358.
New Zealand’s capitulation was a sharp contrast to how things panned out for South Africa after they were put into bat.

Temba Bavuma was the early aggressor, crunching two cover drives off Matt Henry in the fourth over to kick the innings into gear. De Kock was largely subdued and fidgety early on, and even copped a blow to the shoulder from a Trent Boult bouncer in the ninth over. At that point, South Africa’s innings had barely gotten out of second gear. Having roughed up de Kock, Boult had sent Bavuma back with a sucker ball, a full one that had him nicking low to Mitchell at slip.

It could have been wickets in back-to-back overs for New Zealand had Phillips latched on to a screamer at backward point off Tim Southee. That we’re even talking about it being a chance was down to his brilliance – anticipating de Kock’s cut and taking two steps to his right before flinging himself full-stretch to go one-handed. De Kock was on 12 off 24 at that point.
At the other end, van der Dussen helped himself to a pull to begin proceedings as Southee, coming in for the first game of his fourth World Cup, seemed erratic and down on pace to begin with. For much of the first 100 runs in their 200-run stand, de Kock and van der Dussen were steady and calculating, playing themselves into a position from which they could tee off in the back 15. It’s a plan that worked to the T for them, and perhaps much more easily than they may have anticipated because New Zealand had a massive hole to fill midway through.
Henry pulled his hamstring halfway through his sixth over, the 27th of the innings, to leave Ravindra, James Neesham and Phillips to bowl 14.3 overs between them. De Kock and van der Dussen accelerated knowing fully well that New Zealand needed to back-load their part-timers.