New Zealand Faces a Must-Win Clash Against Sri Lanka to Keep World Cup Hopes Alive

After their early dominance, New Zealand's campaign has met a depressing dead end. The Black Caps will need to find their bowling rhythm again to make a World Cup comeback when they play a knocked-out Sri Lanka at the Chinnaswamy on Thursday.

Knowing that a loss or a washout may eliminate them from the competition, New Zealand is stumbling on eight points ahead of their last league encounter, which is threatened by rain.

Bangalore has been experiencing nonstop rain for the last three days, and Thursday is expected to bring more rain and bad weather.

Now ranked fourth on the leaderboard is New Zealand. Afghanistan (-0.338) and Pakistan (+0.036), who are tied for eighth place, may both tie for tenth place if they defeat South Africa and England in their respective league finals.

In such scenario, New Zealand (+0.398) has to win by a significant enough margin to maintain the net run-rate.

Although a win would at least put New Zealand in the running for the semi-finals, it is not an all-too-optimistic situation.

However, it is easy to see why New Zealand failed and came to be where they are now.

With the exception of South Africa, New Zealand's batting hasn't really imploded, unlike backmarkers England, but their bowling hasn't been as effective when it mattered most.

At this location, the Black Caps scored 400 runs against Pakistan, but their bowlers carried on with their reckless tactics, giving up lots of runs and were completely helpless against Fakhar Zaman's assault.

Even though Sri Lanka is not as strong as Pakistan, the islanders may still do some damage if the bowlers from New Zealand recoup fast. Pathum Nissanka and Sadeera Samarawickrama are two of their more productive batsmen.

The Kiwis were also forced to play Thursday's game in a desperate manner due to uncontrollable circumstances, as the 2019 finalists were hindered by injuries to important players like Kane Williamson.