Devon Conway and Rachin Ravindra put up a 282-run partnership to enable New Zealand win the match by nine wickets, and England bowlers were unprepared for them. Notably, when batting first, England got off to a good start, but their joy soon changed to pain as wickets kept falling one after the other. They attempted to play a more aggressive style of cricket, but the New Zealanders were ready for it and only allowed the Jos Buttler-led team to score 282 runs.
From the England team, Joe Root was the lone batsman. With 77 runs, the former England captain significantly contributed to England’s respectable total.
He had strong middle support from captain Jos Buttler, but the match’s tone changed when Matt Henry sent him back to the pavilion. In the end, Matt Henry took three wickets, while Mitchell Santner and Glenn Phillips both took two.
Conway’s 152* runs and Ravindra’s 123* runs absolutely knocked England out of the game, and with that, New Zealand secured their first victory in the ongoing ODI World Cup 2023. When it came to the chase, New Zealand lost the wicket of Will Young pretty quickly. However, the defending champs’ loss is worrying at the time because their bowlers performed poorly in Ahmedabad.
Discussion points for the game:
Ravindra, Rachin: The Starboy
Rachin played a magnificent performance of 123* runs despite being under duress after losing the wicket of Tom Latham, helping the Kiwis cross the finish line. His team eventually won by nine wickets thanks to his aggressive brand of cricket, which put the Three Lions under more pressure.
Consistent Conway
Devon Conway hit 152* runs in a chase which could have proven to be tricky. England had plenty of bowling options and they tried those as well, but nothing really worked as Conway proved to be a force to reckon with. With that, New Zealand picked up a comfortable win.
What was that, England?
Be it with the bat or with the ball, England had a very poor outing. With the ball, Mark Wood and Chris Woakes leaked a lot of runs in the initial phase while neither of the batters could build a partnership with Root and got out while going for glory. There are multiple things that England need to think about ahead of their second match.
Losing skipper Jos Buttler said:
Disappointing day, outplayed by New Zealand, tough to take that defeat. One loss, still a long tournament. Lot of guys in our team have played a lot of cricket. We have beaten teams this way before and we have been beaten like this before as well. Tough to build any pressure with the start they got. We lacked being clinical with our executions. Right shots weren’t quite executed. We will keep it positive, can’t be too defensive but we weren’t clinical in shot selection and execution.
Margin for error was very less on that pitch. The two guys played exceptionally well, fantastic partnership we were well beaten. Skidded on even better under lights, that’s why we wanted to bowl as well. I thought he is back to his old self. Don’t think there is any question about Joe. He’s a run-maker in any format he plays. We will wait and see. He is working hard with the physio.
Winning Skipper Tom Latham said:
It’s a fantastic performance. Fantastic partnership. Fantastic effort with the ball to restrict them to 280 which is below par. Pretty good build-up. We have played in these conditions in the last year or so. Likes of two seamers did a fantastic job. We got wickets at crucial times, to restrict them to 280 odd from the situation they were in was fantastic. The shots they played was fantastic, certainly wasn’t the plan when they went out. Both must have felt really good when they played shots.
POTM Rachin Ravindra said:
Great to have a great day. Boys bowled and fielded well to restrict them to 280. Luckily I had Devon out there to show me how to do it. (I am) Very very close with Devon. Special to finish it off with him. 4-5 years ago, we all knew Devon would become the player he is. Above all he’s a great guy. It was yesterday (because of) the thing (niggle) with Lockie (when did he know he’ll bat at three?). Good to get the opportunity. We’ll see what happens. I’m actually quite a good sleeper luckily. There was some swing, but the surface was really good to bat on.
India
