The Black Caps racked up 401 runs, conceded 200 in rapid fashion and lost to Pakistan.
It was their fourth consecutive defeat, the third straight match in which their attack was taken apart, and they remained on course for the semifinals at the Cricket World Cup.
That was the conflicting upshot after an often brilliant and occasionally bizarre game, the full story even more frenetic before all the action ended on a anticlimactic note in Bengaluru.
A day that began with Rachin Ravindra and his team breaking records concluded with Pakistan earning a 21-run victory, triumphing by the DLS method when rain curtailed their own batting blitz.
As Fakhar Zaman (126no off 81) flailed the shellshocked Black Caps bowlers, it appeared entirely possible he would spearhead a chase to overhaul his opponents’ 401-6. In the end, when the covers came on and halted the carnage, the opener had done enough to save his side’s tournament.
The two sides are now locked alongside Afghanistan on eight points, likely competing for the fourth and final knockout place.
The good news for New Zealand is a superior net run rate means they will reach the semifinals if they beat Sri Lanka in their last game. The bad news comes when considering what this current slide says about their prospects of progressing any further.
Having shipped 388 to Australia and 357 to South Africa, an attack missing the injured Matt Henry was helpless to prevent Fakhar lashing 11 sixes. But if the Black Caps can’t stop leaking runs, the sole consolation is the style in which they’re collecting them.
Ravindra and Kane Williamson earlier combined for a spectacular 180-run stand, dispatching the fearsome Pakistan pacers in a 142-ball lesson. The platform the pair established — and the four closing cameos to follow — saw New Zealand post their second-highest total in 819 ODIs.
Williamson fell short of three figures, left to settle for 95 off 79 and a 44th ODI half-century, while the junior partner blasted his third ton of a stunning tournament.
Ravindra (108 off 94) became the first New Zealand batsman to collect three World Cup centuries, announcing his arrival against England before adding a couple of exclamation marks.
The 23-year-old has now formed the Black Caps’ two highest World Cup partnerships, having opened the tournament by topping the charts with a 273-run effort alongside Devon Conway.
For Ravindra, last night was the fifth time he passed 50 in eight innings since assuming Williamson’s spot in the XI, smacking 15 fours and a six in front of family in the stands.
And for the captain, it marked a second remarkable return to the team, having made an unbeaten 78 in his first knock since knee surgery before suffering a fractured thumb and heading back to the sidelines for another three weeks.
Together, the pair thrived with the request to bat first, linking once Conway had helped collect 68 in 10.5 overs while setting world No 1-ranked bowler Shaheen Shah Afridi on course for figures of 0-90.
Williamson once more looked like his 33-year-old body wasn’t causing the slightest concern, finding gaps in the field and lofting vintage drives over it. Ravindra was again mixing flair and brute force, emphasising his timing by ramping Haris Rauf for four and following with a vicious six over long-on.
Matching his partner boundary for boundary, Williamson soon raised his bat having barely missed the middle. The skipper then accelerated and overtook both Ravindra — briefly — and Stephen Fleming’s record of 1075 World Cup runs.
The pair raced to 211-1 after 30 overs and hastened their race to reach a hundred, Ravindra edging that duel by passing the milestone in 88 deliveries. Williamson then fell looking to join his partner, snagged on the long-off fence by Fakhar, before Ravindra departed in solidarity with a similar mode of dismissal.
Given 14 overs to build on an immense platform, Mark Chapman (39 off 27) and Daryl Mitchell (29 off 18) did a decent initial job, while Glenn Phillips (41 off 24) and Mitchell Santner (26no off 17) applied the finishing touch.
The closing flurry saw the Black Caps end a run short of their all-time record total — the 402-2 they smashed against Ireland in 2008 — and for a time it seemed insufficient.
After Williamson scrambled 17 metres to snag a fine catch over his shoulder and remove Abdullah Shafique, Fakhar seized control. Trent Boult copped some serious tap, Mitchell Santner disappeared into the stands and, having begun with a maiden, even Glenn Phillips was no match for the opener.
The Black Caps initially wouldn’t have been worried; despite Fakhar speeding to 50 from 39 balls, the required rate kept creeping up while Pakistan were well behind the DLS score. But the concern levels would’ve started to rise as Fakhar took only 24 balls to compile his second 50, posting Pakistan’s fastest World Cup century to reach 152-1 after 20 overs.
All of a sudden, Fakhar and Babar Azam (66 off 63) had Pakistan 10 runs ahead on DLS as the covers first appeared. Once they were removed, the target had dropped to 342 from 41 overs, bumping the required rate to 9.4.
When Ish Sodhi shipped three sixes in the 25th over, the equation was an eminently achievable 143 from 96. And when the rain returned, Pakistan were well on top, where they would remain.
