Kenya pour the acid on New Zealand for last two matches

New Zealand have been given a clear message that their remaining World Cup games against Bangladesh and Canada cannot be treated as cakewalks.

The potential exists, after Kenya's win over Sri Lanka today, for Kenya to finish with 16 points in the round-robin section, and that could throw all manner of calculations into the frame.

Kenya now has 12 points, with two games to play, against Bangladesh and the West Indies. As it has shown it is well capable of beating Bangladesh when the two teams meet in Johannesburg on Saturday.

The best New Zealand can do is finish with 16 points, but it also needs to get its run rate much higher.

The side has had a long break since beating South Africa on Sunday last week, and with the disturbance in Durban creating unwanted strife for the side, there has to be every incentive to show in tomorrow's game against Bangladesh in Kimberley that the side is well and truly focused on the job in hand.

The scenarios are now mixed, but accepting that New Zealand will win both its games the prospects are:

New Zealand cannot afford to have either of its matches called off due to rain.

If Sri Lanka can recover from their loss to Kenya and beat both the West Indies and South Africa, a daunting prospect given the fact that South Africa, especially, will be under great pressure to win, that would effectively end the West Indies' and South Africa's tournaments as the teams to progress would be Sri Lanka, New Zealand and Kenya.

The downside to that would be that New Zealand would have only two points to take through to the Super Six round from their expected wins over Bangladesh and Canada.

Should Sri Lanka lose to both the West Indies and South Africa, Sri Lanka would be eliminated. That would see the West Indies in first place, with New Zealand, South Africa and Kenya tied for second with the net run rate coming into effect. This is the reason New Zealand cannot afford to take its remaining matches for granted.

Kenya would then, probably, be the side to miss out, while New Zealand would advance with 10 points.

The worst possible case would be if Sri Lanka went down to the West Indies and then beat South Africa. That would expose New Zealand because of their losses to Sri Lanka and Kenya which are taken first in the case of teams being tied.

New Zealand has pulled off what was expected to be the hardest part of their campaign, coming out of their first three games with at least two wins.

But now they face a test of their mental toughness in achieving victories in what were expected to be lesser matches.