Most of England’s World Cup squad will spend the next couple of weeks relaxing before they fly to India, but they will struggle to reach a more restful state than that in which they concluded a third successive stroll to victory against New Zealand. Fuelled by Dawid Malan’s 127, they set a target of 311 that quickly slipped out of the reach of a Black Caps side perhaps distracted by a potentially tournament-ending injury to Tim Southee, and eventually ambled to victory by 100 runs.
This close to a major tournament there is no fate a player fears more than injury, and the dislocated and fractured bone in Southee’s right thumb will sting all the more for the knowledge that it was sustained in the process of dropping Joe Root. “Obviously he’ll be assessed over the coming days but luckily we do have a little bit of time,” said Tom Latham, his captain. “He’s a pretty resilient character, so I’m sure he’ll be doing all he can to be on the plane, but it’s hard to know at this point what the timeframe will be.”
