By Edmund J. Rogers 
New Zealand captain Kane Williamson, in his official comeback match from a knee issue, scored a half-century before having to retire issued at the end of his team’s eight-wicket win over Bangladesh.
Williamson was not forced to retire due to a knee, but left the field when he was in the 78th over, in the 39th over, after being hit on the thumb by a fielder from Bangladesh.
“He got a bit big and colourful straight away, so it just made it a bit difficult to hold the bat.
“Secondary to the thumb, it was great to get out of it from a knee point of view. And from the team’s point of view, it was a very good performance.”
Chasing 246 in Chennai, Williamson batted superbly in his first competitive match since tearing his knee ligament in March. He had already shown promising form in New Zealand’s warm-up matches against Pakistan and South Africa, which had no official ODI status.
Williamson forged an 80-run partnership with Devon Conway (45) and anchored in the company of Daryl Mitchell (89no from 67 balls), who smashed the six winners with 43 balls to spare.
Earlier, Mushfiqur Rahim (66) top-scored for Bangladesh, sharing a 96-run partnership for the fifth wicket with captain Shakib Al Hasan (40), who also suffered an issue before finally dying to man of the Match Lockie Ferguson (3-49).
After Williamson chose to bowl first, having won the toss, Trent Boult (2-45) struck with the first ball of the contest, Litton Das being caught at fine leg.
Ferguson, bringing out the early pace and wicket bounce, then picked off Tanzid Hasan (16) and Mehidy Hasan (30), while Glenn Phillips’ deflected spin did so for Najmul Hossain Shanto (7) to reduce Bangladesh to 56-4.
Mushfiqur and Shakib helped to save things, before the issued captain went down while trying to pull Ferguson for the second sixth in a row in the 30th over. Mushfiqur, meanwhile, had his stumps broken by Matt Henry (2-58),
But in the course of some after and vigorous hitting from Mahmudullah (41st over), Bangladesh’s innings faded in the last 15-20 overs as they finally posted 245-9.
It wasn’t enough, as New Zealand followed up their convincing victories over the champions of England and the Netherlands with a third victory to see them set the early pace at the top of the table.
Bangladesh, victorious over Afghanistan in their first World Cup match, have lost their last two matches against England and New Zealand.