New Zealand thrash defending champion England by 9 wickets in WC opener match

New Zealand thrashed defending champion England by 9 wickets in the opening match of the ICC Men’s World Cup 2023 at India’s Ahmedabad cricket stadium.

Devon Conway and Rachin Ravindra smashed magnificent centuries to lead New Zealand to a comfortable victory over England.

Two quickfire hundreds from Rachin Ravindra and Devon Conway helped New Zealand to a comfortable win in the #CWC23 opener 👊#ENGvNZ 📝: https://t.co/ROYLnOtSh0 pic.twitter.com/d9iBySMrR5

— ICC (@ICC) October 5, 2023

The defending champions, who were put to bat first, had set a 283-run target for New Zealand.

When England opened the innings, openers David Mullan and Jonny Bairstow gave their team a 40-run start, but Mullan became the wicket of Matt Henry after scoring 14 runs.

The score had reached 64 when Bairstow, who scored 33 runs, tried to play Mitchell Santner’s ball over the covers but he was caught straight by Daryl Mitchell.

Harry Brook adopted a traditional offensive style and hit Richan Ravindra for two fours and a six over midwicket but lost his wicket trying to hit another six over midwicket, scoring 25 off 16 balls.

Moeen Ali was sent in to bat at the upper numbers but the experiment failed and the all-rounder was bowled by Glenn Phillips after scoring just 11 runs.

Meanwhile, veteran Joe Root stood firm at the other end and played a responsible game, scoring a half-century and adding 70 runs for the fifth wicket with captain Joe Buttler.

Buttler looked in good form and scored 43 runs with 2 sixes and 2 fours but was caught by the wicketkeeper in an attempt to cut an inbound delivery from Matt Henry.

Liam Livingstone also failed to play a big innings and fell victim to Trent Boult after scoring 20 runs.

However, England’s hopes of a big score suffered a real blow when the 77-runer was bowled by Glenn Phillips in an attempt to play a reverse sweep.

Chris Woakes also could not help the team in the trouble and went on to score 11 runs while Sam Curran also scored 14 runs and became Henry’s third wicket.

In the last overs, contrary to expectations, the England team could not bat more aggressively, which can be estimated from the fact that England hit only one-six in the last five overs and did not hit any boundaries.

England scored 282 runs for the loss of 9 wickets in the allotted overs.

For New Zealand, Matt Henry took 3 wickets while Mitchell Santner and Glenn Phillips took two wickets each.

Chasing a target of 283 runs, New Zealand opened the innings when Sam Curran dismissed Will Young on the first ball of his over with the help of captain Joe Buttler.

However, after the first wicket, the English bowlers were left desperate for wickets as Conway and Rachin Ravindra starred for the English bowlers on the day on a batting-friendly wicket.

Both the players not only showed excellent batting but also played aggressively and scored runs at an average of about 8 runs per over demoralizing the English bowlers.

After completing their half-centuries, both became more aggressive and quickly progressed towards the century.

Conway soon completed his century off 83 balls and Rachin Ravindra followed him with a century off 82 balls.

Both the players continued to play well and easily took their team to the target in the 37th over without any further loss to win by 9 wickets.

The excellent batting of the Kiwi batsmen can be gauged from the fact that when New Zealand reached the target, there were 82 balls to spare.

Dion Conway scored 152 off 121 balls including 3 sixes and 19 fours while Rachin Ravindra scored 123 runs off 96 balls with 5 sixes and 11 fours.

Tom Latham led the Black Caps as stand-in captain in today’s match as the side rested regular captain Kane Williamson (knee) and fast bowler Tim Southee (thumb) to give them more time to recover from surgery.

Teams:

England: Jonny Bairstow, Dawid Malan, Joe Root, Harry Brook, Jos Buttler (wk/capt), Liam Livingstone, Moeen Ali, Sam Curran, Chris Woakes, Adil Rashid, Mark Wood

New Zealand: Devon Conway, Will Young, Rachin Ravindra, Daryl Mitchell, Tom Latham (wk/capt), Glenn Phillips, Mark Chapman, Matt Henry, Mitchell Santner, James Neesham, Trent Boult