Afghanistan captain Gulbadin Naib said he has not lost heart despite his team slipping to a third straight defeat at the 2019 World Cup.

New Zealand made it three wins out of three at the World Cup after James Neesham’s maiden international five-wicket haul laid the foundations for a comfortable win over Afghanistan at Taunton.

Afghanistan had motored along to 66 without loss but the intervention of Neesham (5-31) led to a collapse from which they never fully recovered.

A total of 172 all out after 41.1 overs seemed woefully insufficient and, despite a couple of early scares, that proved to be the case as Kane Williamson’s unbeaten 79 clinched a seven-wicket triumph with 17.5 overs to spare.

However, Naib said his team is just one win away from a turnaround.

“I can say I know my team-mates so if you are losing these kind of matches … we’re not losing like one-sided matches so it looks good now. We just need one good match so I know my boys, the team, how they’re playing, how we are here. So we play a lot of good cricket (over) the last one year so Inshallah we’ll try to do the best (with what) we have,” he said.