Kane Williamson will only get to know the seriousness of his thumb injury on Saturday, but as on Friday, he was a happy captain with New Zealand cruising to their third win of the World Cup with an eight-wicket victory over Bangladesh.
Williamson guided New Zealand's chase of a 246-run target to perfection before retiring hurt when a stray throw hit his left thumb. The skipper was playing his first match of the ongoing showpiece after finally recovering fully from the knee injury he had sustained during the IPL earlier this year.
The 33-year-old was hardly rusty in his first international outing after six months as he showed his class with an old-fashioned, calculative ODI innings that fetched him 78 runs from 107 balls.
Speaking about his latest injury, Williamson said: "It (the left thumb) just got a bit fat and colourful straight away... so got a scan tomorrow, but hopefully it's okay... Glad to get through the game from a knee perspective, but from a team perspective it was great as well."
Lockie Ferguson (extreme right) is being congratulated by his MoM: Lockie Ferguson teammates after one of his three wickets on Friday. pti photo
Besides Williamson, Daryl Mitchell played a big hand in the chase as he blazed away to a 67-ball 89 not out. Mitchell looked in a hurry as he smashed six fours and four sixes to seal the issue in his team's favour with 43 balls still left.
Earlier, Mushfiqur Rahim top-scored with 66 as Bangladesh battled hard in the face of New Zealand's disciplined bowling effort to post 245/9.
Mushfiqur's 75-ball knock, alongside valuable contributions from captain Shakib-al Hasan (40 off 51 balls) and Mahmudullah (41 off 49), lifted Bangladesh after they were reeling at 56/4 in the 13th over.
Pacer Lockie Ferguson took 3/49, while Trent Boult grabbed 2/45.