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.”
England have some injury concerns of their own, with Jason Roy again ruled out here with a back problem. But Malan’s form has diminished the significance of Roy’s absence, and but for the fact that he goes home to a week-old baby the 36-year-old would be entitled to spend the next fortnight with his feet up and a grin on his face.
Two days after falling for 96 at the Oval he went 31 better at Lord’s, along the way scoring his 1,000th ODI run – in just his 21st game – with a hard, flat six off Kyle Jamieson.
It seems absurd now that only 10 days ago Malan was preparing for this series amid a chorus of voices suggesting he should be pensioned off to make way for Harry Brook, but this innings constituted not so much two fingers as three figures to the doubters. “It’s satisfying to be able to silence some people who’ve always got negative things to say,” Malan said.
“My job is to score runs and as long as I can keep doing that hopefully I can keep the support from inside the changing room, because I’ve always felt backed by the guys that matter there.” To stay in this team, Malan added, “you either have to be an absolute freak or you have to be so consistent that you keep your name in the hat, and I’ve had to be that consistent one”.
It turns out that far from being ready for the glue factory Malan is the glue factory, and through his three appearances in this series he has been the one meshing England’s innings together. This was a third century in his last seven ODIs and took his average in 21 international appearances to 57.32. Yet since coming into the England side somehow he has never reached the point where a couple of poor scores are seen as but a blip, rather than reason to question the sense of picking him at all.
Fortunately for Root, England’s former Test captain has. His 29 here was by some margin his best score of the series, though but for half a Rachin Ravindra over, from which he plundered a four and a fine slog-swept six, it was never very handsome. There were two attempts at that reverse ramp, both missed, and two drops at wide second slip – including Southee’s – off the luckless Ben Lister, who was himself to be forced off the field with a hamstring injury that has nixed his proposed return to Kent.
Ravindra made up for some of his teammates’ misfortune with a bit of luck of his own, developing the excellent habit of taking good wickets with bad balls: Brook tried to punish a long-hop but belted it straight to mid-on, Malan chased a wide one and top-edged into Latham’s gloves, and Moeen Ali sent another very wide delivery steepling high to long-off.
Having been their leading wicket-taker Ravindra went on to be by a distance the outstanding contributor to New Zealand’s reply, and at the last, after Lister dragged himself out to join him at the crease, found a level no other batter on either side could reach. He slog-swept Liam Livingstone and Moeen for sixes in successive overs, forcing England to switch to seam, and then thrashed Brydon Carse for two sixes and two fours, motoring in the process from 25 off 32 to 61 off 45, his first international half-century. He faced three more balls and scored no further runs before being beaten by Sam Curran’s yorker to end it.
