World Twenty20: New Zealand beat Australia by eight runs in Dharamsala

AUSTRALIA’S World Twenty20 campaign is hanging by a thread after Steve Smith’s side capitulated in a crushing loss to New Zealand in Dharamsala.

The batting side was always going to be under pressure to deliver after selectors made the bold call to bench the world’s No. 1 T20 batsman Aaron Finch in favour of Usman Khawaja.

However, it wasn’t the contentious opening position that hurt Australia, rather two crippling collapses in the middle and lower order.

After all-rounders Glenn Maxwell and James Faulkner toiled brilliantly to restrict the Black Caps to just 142, Australia completely butchered their run chase to lose by eight runs.

Khawaja and Shane Watson piled on a 44-run opening stand to have Australia cruising, before the plucky kiwis tightened the screws and turned around a summer of misery against their trans-Tasman rivals in a memorable victory.

New Zealand have virtually assured themselves of a semi-final berth having defeated India in their first match, and only need to beat qualifiers Bangladesh to book their place in the knockout stage.

PODCAST: BEN HORNE ON AUSTRALIA’S DEFEAT TO NZ

Australia on the other hand can hardly afford to drop another game — and that will entail beating subcontinental kings India, Pakistan as well as Bangladesh in Bangalore on Monday.

According to captain Steve Smith, it’s not panic stations.

“We’re still confident,” said Smith. “We’ve obviously got to turn it around very quickly, with our next game at Bangalore. But I’m confident in the group that we’ve got, that we can do it. Hopefully we come out and win in a couple of days’ time.

“I think it’s just about going out there and making sure that we learn from our mistakes from this game. I think the way we play; we can win and lose games in the 7-15 overs. I think we saw that in the games we played over in South Africa.

“We batted really well in those periods and we were able to win games, so we need to adopt the same things here.”