After suffering a severely disrupted defeat to Pakistan, the Blackcaps are on high rain alert, as they prepare for their must-win match against Sri Lanka at Bengaluru.
At the same ground five days ago, New Zealand fell just one run short of their biggest one-day score with 401, but somehow lost by 21 runs, when their rivals could complete only half their allotted overs, before rain intervened, courtesy of Duckworth Lewis Stern.
With a semi-final spot hanging in the balance, eyes are turned nervously skyward, as weather poses another invariable for teams to negotiate at this tense stage of the tournament.
"There are lots of things we can't control and the weather is one of those," conceded captain Kane Williamson. "There might be a thought in the back of your mind, but at the end of the day, our focus will be on the cricket we want to play.
"We'll be trying to put all our focus and energy into that. We know that gives us the best chance of putting out a good performance."
The Blackcaps are well used to dealing with adverse weather conditions and four years ago, at the last World Cup, overcame India in a semi-final that rolled into a second day, due to rain at Manchester.
They're also accustomed to progressing on mathematical calculations. In 2019, New Zealand sunk past Pakistan on superior net run rate and face a similar scenario this time, as they sit tied with Pakistan and Afghanistan for fourth on the table.
Pakistan face England in their last group match, Afghanistan take on South Africa.
"I suppose guys have had some of those experiences, but it's another game on another day and four years later, so the focus is here and now, and on the conditions and how we want to adjust," insisted Williamson. "That is the most important thing.
"You have nine pool games, they're all as important as each other, so it's very difficult to target which game means what. Every game means something similar, so the focus has to come back to us as a team and the cricket we want to play."
Aside from the weather, the Bengaluru pitch has proved a batter's paradise. When rain stopped the Pakistan innings this week, they were 200/1 after 25.3 overs, with Fakhar Zaman on 125 and Baba Azam 66, so they were well on the way to overhauling New Zealand's near-record total.
"It took somethin quites special to chase that, albeit a shortened version of chasing 400, but still a really special knock to get across the line," said Williamson. "Usually, [the ground] does have quite highscoring games, so we'll have to see what the pitch is like.
"There's been a lot of weather around and it could look different tomorrow, so we'll just have to play what's in front of us.
"Naturally, in highscoring games, there's perhaps slightly higher-risk cricket and there might be some opportunities, despite not seeing those the other day. That's cricket."
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