South Africa go top as New Zealand slump to third straight defeat

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. Assuming the misfortune to Australia in Dharamsala was awful, this one to South Africa in Pune was out and out unsettling. The bowlers were sent on a calfskin chase as Quinton de Kock and Rassie van der Dussen looted hundreds of years, and David Mill operator added more salt to the injuries with a rankling 30-ball 53 not out as South Africa posted 357 for 4; the last 10 overs alone brought them 119 runs. In answer, New Zealand's top request disentangled against South Africa's quality speed assault under lights. Marco Jansen's additional skip represented Devon Conway and Rachin Ravindra, Will Youthful was out scratching behind off Gerald Coetzee, and Kagiso Rabada had Tom Latham chipping one to cover. Daryl Mitchell kept trust glinting, overflowing class and certainty as he played several perfect on-drives, yet his excusal while hoping to hit out against Keshav Maharaj in the nineteenth over opened the conduits. The game turned out to be stunningly uneven as New Zealand subsided to 167 full scale, with just Glenn Phillips offering any protection from make 60. The loss, and its quantum, was huge from a competition's viewpoint, with New Zealand currently slipping back to possibly enter a logjam for fourth spot, which Pakistan, Afghanistan and Sri Lanka are looking at. Few would have anticipated that New Zealand should collapse the way they did, even after South Africa had set them 358. New Zealand's capitulation was a sharp differentiation to how things worked out for South Africa after they were placed into bat. Temba Bavuma was the early attacker, crunching two cover drives off Matt Henry in the fourth over to get the innings going. De Kock was to a great extent repressed and nervous right off the bat, and, surprisingly, copped a disaster for the shoulder from a Trent Boult bouncer in the 10th over. By then, South Africa's innings had scarcely escaped second stuff. Having messed up de Kock, Boult had sent Bavuma back with a sucker ball, an entire one that made them scratch low to Mitchell at slip. It might have been wickets in consecutive overs for New Zealand had Phillips locked on to a screamer at in reverse point off Tim Southee. That we're in any event, discussing it being an opportunity was down to his splendor - expecting de Kock's sliced and making two moves to one side prior to hurling himself full-stretch to go one-gave. De Kock was on 12 off 24 by then. At the opposite end, van der Dussen grabbed a draw to start procedures as Southee, coming in for the primary round of his fourth World Cup, appeared to be whimsical and down poised in the first place. For a significant part of the initial 100 runs in their 200-run stand, de Kock and van der Dussen were consistent and computing, playing themselves into a situation from which they could jump start in the back 15. An arrangement worked to the T for them, and maybe considerably more effectively than they might have expected on the grounds that New Zealand had a monstrous opening to fill halfway through. Henry got his hamstring part of the way through his 6th 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 sped up realizing completely well that New Zealand expected to back-stack their seasonal workers. The main indication of de Kock breaking the shackles came in the sixteenth over when he stalled out into Southee. He followed an imperious draw before square for four by clobbering a six over the bowler's head. De Kock had one more cut of karma not long after when he chipped Phillips into the leg side, with the ball falling between three defenders. De Kock before long raised his 50 years off 62 conveyances and van der Dussen took action accordingly, arriving off 61. New Zealand's cup of hardship was nowhere near finished. Neesham, one of the seasonal workers approached to make up overs, experienced his very own blow when he was struck flush on the thumb by a de Kock straight drive. On 95, de Kock ought to have been run out off a similar conveyance when he was sent back even as the ball diverted to Mitchell Santner at cover. The player had surrendered trust when Santner terminated a toss at the bowler's end, however it missed the stumps. De Kock before long raised his hundred - his fourth of this World Cup, which abandoned him one Rohit Sharma's record of five in a solitary release - by getting inside the line and assisting a draw profound past the fine leg with fencing for six. He arrived at the hundred years off 103 balls, and appeared to be firing up for a dramatic finale. At the opposite end, the productive van der Dussen brought out charming converse oars and scopes to lose New Zealand's spinners gear. The second-wicket pair had added 200 at better than a run-a-ball when de Kock chose highlight give Southee a wicket in the 40th over. It's as of now that South Africa took out an unexpected move, pushing Mill operator up the request, apparently to make all the difference for the left-right blend, and he attacked the bowling at the demise to get to his 50 years in 29 balls. Neesham went for 69 off his 5.3 overs, and yielded 18 in the 50th. While New Zealand strolled off realizing they had a major pursue, there was a feeling that the game was still yet to be determined given the way in which well they had batted in large pursues against Britain and Australia. However, their expectations were run by a South African assault that made you keep thinking about whether this was a similar surface New Zealand had bowled on. After the top request was blown away, Phillips postponed the unavoidable, getting in some batting time in the midst of a lower-request breakdown. By and by, New Zealand were so frantic to limit the harm to their net run rate that a harmed Henry stumbled out to bat and gave Phillips organization for 5.1 overs, in the process adding 34 for the last wicket. Nonetheless, even that didn't exactly reduce the greatness of the loss, which, by and large, was a legitimate sticking.