The White Ferns have suffered an agonising loss to South Africa in their Cricket World Cup match in Hamilton.
The White Ferns have now loss three of their five World Cup games. Photo: Photosport
Having set South Africa 229 to win, the match went down to the final over with South Africa scraping home with three balls to spare and two wickets in hand.
The victory means South Africa has won all four of their tournament games and are on track for the semi finals.
However it's New Zealand's third loss in five games and means they must rely on other results going their way if they are to make the top four.
The White Ferns total of 228 initially looked 20 runs light.
After being 198 for four at the 40 over mark, the New Zealand batting fell over in the final ten overs as they lost six wickets for just 30 runs.
Captain Sophie Devine top scored with 93, while Amelia Kerr made 42.
South Africa looked to have the game well in hand at 161 for two, but when Laura Wolvaardt (67) and skipper Sune Luus (51) were dismissed South Africa's grip on the game loosened allowing the White Ferns back in.
However South African allrounder Marizanne Kapp kept her cool steering her side home with an unbeaten 34 off just 35 balls.
Amelia Kerr with 3-50 was the most successful of the New Zealand bowlers.
The White Ferns can afford no further slip-ups after winning only two of their five games and go into Sunday's must-win clash against England knowing the loser will make an early exit.
Captain Devine insisted there is still lots of fight left in her side and plenty of positives for them to take as they look to avoid a "miserable" dressing room after suffering back-to-back defeats following the 141-run reverse to Australia.
"There were a lot of conversations about how we wanted to bowl to the tailenders and how we wanted to keep Kapp off strike," explained Devine.
"You can find a million different ways to do things but it is heartbreaking to not get across the line there. But our tournament is certainly not over yet and it's another learning curve for us.
"If we are honest, we were probably 30-40 runs short with the bat. Then the way we scrapped back, the way Amelia [Kerr] bowled through the middle swung momentum back in our favour.
"We clawed our way back and we have to focus on the positives because if we dwell too long on the negatives or what we could have done differently then it is going to be a pretty miserable dressing room."
- RNZ
