'It's embarrassing' - White Ferns collapse again at World Cup

The White Ferns' Women's T20 World Cup campaign has taken another hit after suffering a blowout loss to hosts South Africa this morning.

New Zealand went down by 65 runs in Paarl, scoring just 67 runs in their chase.

Having restricted South Africa to 132/6, the Kiwi bats failed to fire yet again as both openers - Bernadine Bezuidenhout and Suzie Bates - were dismissed for ducks.

In the end, only three batters managed to reach double figures in the chase with captain Sophie Devine top-scoring for New Zealand with just 16 runs.

It meant the White Ferns beat their unwanted record from Sunday in scoring their lowest total at a T20 World Cup, and it's their second lowest total against any opponent in T20s.

Devine was blunt with her assessment after the game.

"They completely outplayed us today and were deserved winners so congrats to them. To be honest, it's embarrassing. I can't really say much else apart from that," Devine said.

"We've trained well and put in all the work behind the scenes and then to come out and perform like that two nights in a row is simply not good enough for international cricket.

"I thought it was a competitive score but we always have the belief that we can chase down any score. I thought the wicket was slightly better than it was last game. So for us, again it was just disappointing."

Devine said the team would "have some serious looks in the mirror and some pretty harsh discussions" ahead of their next game against Bangladesh on Saturday.

"We've got to let our emotions out. We've got a couple of days before our next game and we've got to let it out. We can't hold onto it and then we have to move on. Tomorrow will be a really important day for us.

"I think we need to step away from the cricket field and the training field and have some time away because tonight's performance and the other night was not good enough. It's harsh and sport is bloody hard. But we have to bounce back."