In the past few years, England have been dominant in any edition. Cricket lovers were captivated by fearless batting.
They came to the World Cup as the current champions. But last season’s runners-up New Zealand did not pay any attention to them in the opening match of the season. Devon Conway and Rachin Ravindra’s unbeaten century started the tournament with a 9-wicket win for the Kiwis.
England set New Zealand a target of 283 runs at the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad. Cricket is not supposed to get much momentum to pass this run in the modern era. But New Zealand passed it with a smile. They reached the target with 82 balls in hand.
“Conway and Rachin achieved their first-ever World Cup victory. Although Conway is an experienced batsman, it was Rachin’s first century in his career, and he seemed to send a message to the world with this achievement. Captain Kane Williamson, who was absent due to injury, didn’t seem to be missed in the batting lineup.
New Zealand suffered an early blow as opener Will Young fell victim to Sam Curran’s brilliant catch. The subsequent partnership between Conway and Rachin formed an unbeaten 273-run stand, setting a new record for the highest partnership for New Zealand in World Cup one-dayers. Conway, a seasoned campaigner, played an unbeaten inning of 152 runs, facing 121 balls and hitting 19 fours and 3 sixes. On the other hand, Rachin, in his debut World Cup innings, played an outstanding knock of 123 runs off 96 balls, including 11 fours and 5 sixes.
Earlier, New Zealand won the toss and invited England to bat first. Except for Joe Root, who scored the highest 77 runs, the rest of the batters will disappoint; the fans may have already guessed that. Therefore, more than half of the chairs in the stadium with more than 100,000 seats were empty.
In the beginning, however, England signaled well. But in the eighth over, Matt Henry broke the team’s opening pair of 40 runs. David Malan punched the ball of this right-handed pacer and caught it behind the wicket. Then, the procession continued from one end to the other. Jonny Bairstow (33), Harry Brook (25) and Moeen Ali (11) could not settle for long.
Root stood on the other side of the slope. He made a pair of 70 runs for the fifth wicket with captain Jos Buttler. But Henry brought New Zealand back into the match. Buttler took the catch behind the wicket as his body looked up. He returned with 43 runs off 42 balls with two fours and two sixes.
After Buttler’s departure, Root’s responsibility was to finish the innings. But he could not go far in that direction. The infamous spinner lost his stumps while reverse sweeping Glenn Phillips. The right-handed batsman scored 77 runs in 86 balls with 4 fours and 1 six in his 37th career fifty.
It was already understood that England’s total would not cross 300. However, they collected 282 runs for 9 wickets by relying on a pair of continuous 30 runs in the last wicket. Adil was unbeaten on 15 off 13 balls and Mark Wood was unbeaten on 13 off 14 balls. Henry top-scored with three for the Kiwis, while Phillips and Mitchell Santner took two wickets apiece.
However, Santner did not hit any boundaries after spending 37 runs in 10 overs. Rachin could not see so much Kiptemi like him. Rather, he had the worst bowling among the Kiwi bowlers even with one wicket. But the 23-year-old all-rounder forgot that with his brilliant batting touch.
