Williamson forced off after half-century in Black Caps win

By Kris Shannon

Kane Williamson is back in the runs at the Cricket World Cup — now the unbeaten Black Caps will hope he’s not heading back to the casualty ward.

The skipper experienced a conflicting return this morning after more than six months on the sidelines, hitting a half-century to help the Black Caps earn an eight-wicket win over Bangladesh before retiring hurt late in the contest.

It wasn’t his surgically repaired right knee that forced Williamson from the field in Chennai but a painful blow to the hand from an errant throw, eventually ending his innings on 78.

The 33-year-old had continued to bat for a few overs after receiving treatment, but with the Black Caps comfortably on track to overhaul Bangladesh’s 245-9, he made way to cloud what had been an encouraging — and much-anticipated — comeback appearance.

Williamson stroked eight boundaries and a six during his 107-ball stay, combining with Daryl Mitchell (89no off 67) in an unbroken match-winning stand of 108. He was occasionally unsteady when running between the wickets but lacked nothing in timing with the bat, accumulating easily all around the ground

Williamson had earlier fielded for 50 overs without incident in his first official match since rupturing his ACL, as Lockie Ferguson (3-49) led a pace attack that effectively utilised bounce to set up a third straight victory.

After facing Afghanistan on Wednesday, Black Caps enter the segment of schedule that will determine their semifinal fate, starting with a showdown against hosts India next Saturday.

Now a third of the way through the group stage, Gary Stead’s side appear strong contenders to reach the knockout round for a sixth straight white-ball World Cup, though may now be sweating once more on Williamson.

After Rachin Ravindra opened for the first time in his ODI career and was subsequently dismissed cheaply for the first time at this tournament, Williamson began with caution in the third over.

The captain needed 17 balls to score his second run as New Zealand crept to 36-1 after 10 overs. But after finally freeing his hands to carve a boundary through point, Williamson soon discovered his peerless touch.

He used his feet on a few occasions to collect boundaries down the ground while showing trademark timing to play late behind square, picking gaps and offering the opposition only one real chance.

That was spilled at midwicket by a diving Taskin Ahmed when Williamson was on 27, a tough catch that needed to be taken considering the sub-par total on the board.

Bangladesh had already given a life to Devon Conway on four, part of a scratchy innings that ended when Shakib Al Hasan trapped the opener in front on 45.

Joined by Mitchell who came out swinging, Williamson continued his unflustered runscoring, reaching his 43rd ODI half-century in the 29th over. Coming after he scored 91 runs without being dismissed in two warm-up games, any rust had clearly long been batted out in the nets.

Focus, however, will now switch from his knee to hand, with Williamson left to watch as Mitchell and Glenn Phillips cruised past the target with more than seven overs to spare.

Such a result seemed likely when Bangladesh, having been asked to bat, were reduced to 56-4 in the 13th over.

By that point, Trent Boult had removed Litton Das from the opening ball of the match, Ferguson had snared two quick scalps and Phillips had cemented his burgeoning golden-arm reputation by striking from his first delivery.

But that dismissal was the exception on a surface playing differently to the adjacent track that had suited spin when India eased past Australia at the same venue, with the Black Caps adapting well and employing the short ball to good effect.

Only Shakib and Mushfiqur Rahim were able to provide resistance, putting together a 96-run stand for the fifth wicket. When the former top-edged a Ferguson bouncer and wicketkeeper Tom Latham covered plenty of ground to take a tumbling catch outside the circle, Bangladeshi hopes of a big score were squashed.

Boult soon became the sixth Black Caps bowler to register 200 ODI wickets — needing 107 matches, the third-quickest in world cricket to reach that milestone — while Mitchell Santner (1-31) ended another fine spell with reward from his final ball.

This article was first published on nzherald.co.nz and is republished here with permission