A full dominating performance was shown by New Zealand (NZ) in the very first match of the World Cup by defeating the defending champion by 9 wickets.
England (ENG) failed miserably against the Kiwi batters. They scored 282/9 in 50 overs and in reply NZ easily chased down the target in 36.2 overs and scored 283/1.
As Kane Willamson was not playing, Tom Latham took the charge and after winning the toss he invited ENG to bat first. Jos Butler also wants to bat second if he would have won the toss.
It was the first time in the history of ODIs when all eleven players scored in double digit. England made this record. After batting first, the ENG players took their time to settle down and they put up the scoreboard slowly. Joe Root (77 runs) scored the most runs from the side where he played 86 balls and hit 4 fours and a six.
Skipper Jos Butler (43 runs) supported him pretty well and both of them made a partnership of 70 runs. Butler missed his half century. Jonny Bairstow (33 runs) in the starting batted well but was unable to convert his innings into a big one. Therefore in the end with some useful contributions by the tailenders they were able to post 282 runs in 50 overs by losing 9 wickets.
In the absence of NZ main bowlers (Ish Sodhi, Tim Southee and Lockie Ferguson didn’t play) the remaining bowlers did a fantastic job by restricting the hard hitters in the death overs and also got the wickets. Matt Henry led the charge with 3 wickets in his pockets. Spinners Mitchell Santner and part-time bowler Glenn Phillips took 2 wickets each. Whereas Rachin Ravindra and Trent Boult got 1 wicket each.
Kiwi got a bad start as they lost Will Young in the 2nd over. He wasn’t able to score any runs and got out in the very first ball he played. After that Devon Conway (152 runs) and Rachin Ravindra (123 runs) played till the end and remained unbeaten. They built a record partnership of 273 runs. It was also Rachin’s debut tournament and became the 3rd youngest (after Virat Kohli and Andy Flower) to score a century in his debut match.
Conway played 121 balls and hit 19 fours and 3 sixes where Rachin played 96 balls and hit 11 fours and 5 sixes to their respective innings. These two took away the match and chased down the target in 36.2 overs and scored 283 runs by losing only a single wicket.
Sam Curran was the only wicket taker who took the wicket of Young in his very first over.
Rachin Ravindra, NZ, Player of the Match
“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 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 ( when he got to know that he will bat in 3rd position). Good to get the opportunity. We’ll see what happens. I’m actually quite a good sleeper. There was some swing, but the surface was really good to bat on.”