In the opening clash of the ICC World Cup 2023, New Zealand defeated World Champions England with nine wickets in hand. Devon Conway’s and young Rachin Ravindra’s centuries made it easy for the team to chase down the total. England skipper Jos Buttler expressed his disappointment after losing against New Zealand by such a huge margin of nine wickets. Jos Buttler looked clueless when the duo Conway & Ravindra took the bowlers to the cleaners.
England missed out on their star player Ben Stokes; on the other hand, New Zealand’s skipper Kane Williamson also missed the first clash of the World Cup due to slight injuries. Before the match started, England was the favorite team to win the contest. The Kiwi skipper won the toss and decided to bowl first.
The English openers started off really well and hooked a 40-run partnership together. Wickets kept falling from the other end, but their starter, Joe Root, was hanging around in the middle. Later, he built a partnership with his skipper and helped England give themselves a nice platform for a decent total.
At the back end of the inning, England’s bowlers took England to a fighting total of 282. Root was the top scorer for the team and became the first player to hit a half century in the 2023 ICC World Cup. In the chase, New Zealand lost their opener at the very first ball he faced from Sam Curran. England was on the charge, but the out-of-syllabus question showed up in the form of Rachin Ravindra.
England could not answer that question. Devon Conway, 152 not out, and young Rachin Ravindra, 123 not out, both scored centuries and crumbled the World Champions with ease. The English team never looked up the game in the whole contest. New Zealand just outplayed World Champion England very easily; they chased down 283 runs on target very easily with nine wickets to spare.
One loss, still a long tournament- Jos Buttler
During the post match presentation, skipper Jos Buttler was utterly disappointed by the team’s performance. Jos Buttler pointed out that they have been at the end of such results before and said that the side is optimistic of bouncing back. Jos Buttler said that the batters weren’t clinical in shot selection and execution.
“It was a disappointing day, outplayed by New Zealand. It was tough to take that defeat. One loss, still a long tournament. A lot of guys in our team have played a lot of cricket. We have beaten teams this way before, and we have been at the end of such results before. We will keep it positive; we’ll keep playing our way. We can’t be too defensive, but we weren’t clinical in shot selection and execution,” said Jos Buttter.
“I thought we were well below par, not judging by the way New Zealand batted, because we were aiming for somewhere around 330. It was a good wicket to bat, and I think it got even better in the second inning. It was tough to build any pressure with the start they got. We lacked clinically in our executions. In some of those dismissals, the right shots weren’t quite executed,” he added.