The 1st and the opening match of the ICC World Cup 2023 was played between New Zealand and England today at Narendra Modi Stadium, Ahmedabad.
England cricket team started their title defense of the 2023 World Cup against New Zealand.
New Zealand won the toss and elected to field first. Batting first England scored 282 runs in the allotted 50 overs by losing 9 wickets.
Joe Root scored 77 runs along with England’s Captain Jos Butler who scored 43 runs to post a good total of 282 runs. England lost wickets at regular intervals which is the main reason of not posting a much more competitive total on the score board. Except James Neesham, all other New Zealand’s bowlers picked wickets. England were without their star player Ben Stokes due to a niggle. However, England struggled to play their trademark explosive batting style.
While New Zealand’s bowlers Matt Henry claimed 3 wickets apart from Mitchell Santner’s and Glenn Phillips 2 wickets each bowling spell.
Unlike English batsmen, New Zealand’s batsmen played with ease and chased the total of 282 runs in just 36.2 overs. New Zealand opener Devon Conway and Rachin Ravindra guided the team with their unbeaten centuries in the ICC World Cup 2023 maiden match.
Devon Conway scored 152 runs and Rachin Ravindra scored 123 runs. Will Young got back to the pavilion without scoring. Sam Curran claimed his wicket.
Devon Convey and Ravindra’s 235-run partnership is New Zealand’s highest for the 2nd wicket in ODIs, breaking the record of 203 runs between Guptill and Will Young. With this record partnership, New Zealand won by 9 wickets against England in the first ODI match of ICC Cricket World Cup 2023.
New Zealand’s Rachin Ravindra was declared as the “PLAYER OF THE MATCH” for his knock of 123(96) & 1/76.
With this win, New Zealand claimed 2 points with a good run-rate. The second match of the ICC World Cup 2023 tournament will be played between Netherlands and Pakistan in Hyderabad.
England also created a unique World record with this ICC World Cup 2023 match. The rare feat is that all the 11 players scoring in double digits which never happened in any of the 4658 ODIs that have been played over the last 52 years. Hence, the world champions are the first to achieve the rare feat in the history of ODI cricket history.