World Cup 2023: The World Cup started with a bang, New Zealand defeated England in the very first match.

New Delhi: The One Day World Cup 2023 hosted by India has started on a stormy note. The first match was played between defending champion England and New Zealand at Narendra Modi Stadium, Ahmedabad. In the opening match held on Thursday (5 October), New Zealand had a target of 283 runs. In response, the Kiwi team won by 9 wickets in just 36.2 overs.

New Zealand had played the final of the last i.e. 2019 World Cup, in which England had defeated. In such a situation, after 4 years, the Kiwi team has taken revenge from England along with interest. In the 2019 final, after the match and then the super over was tied, England was declared the winner using the boundary count rule. But after 4 years, the opening match of this World Cup was played between these two teams. Kane Williamson did not play in this and in his absence, wicketkeeper batsman Tom Latham took command. Latham won the toss and decided to bowl first in the match.

After this, the England team could score only 282 runs after losing 9 wickets in this 50 over match. For the team, Joe Root played the highest innings of 77 runs on 86 balls. While captain Jos Buttler scored 43 runs and Jonny Bairstow scored 33 runs. For New Zealand, fast bowler Matt Henry took maximum 3 wickets. Whereas Mitchell Santner and Glenn Phillips got 2-2 successes.

The New Zealand team had a target of 283 runs to win the match. In response, the team lost the first wicket in the form of Will Young for just 10 runs. But after that Devon Conway and Rachin Ravindra took charge and started destroying the England bowlers. First both completed their fifty. After this both of them also scored their respective centuries. First star opener Devon Conway scored a century in a stormy manner. He scored this century in 83 balls. During that time Conway hit 2 sixes and 13 fours. Thanks to this, New Zealand had scored 200/1 in just 27 overs.

After this, star all-rounder Rachin Ravindra completed his century in a stormy manner. This was Ravindra’s first century in ODI and international cricket. He completed his century in 82 balls. Rachin hit 4 sixes and 9 fours to complete his century. But overall in the match, Conway played an unbeaten inning of 152 runs and Rachin played an unbeaten inning of 123 runs. Conway hit a total of 3 sixes and 19 fours. Whereas Ravindra hit a total of 5 sixes and 11 fours in his innings. On the basis of this, New Zealand won the match in 36.2 overs after losing 1 wicket. Sam Curran took the only wicket for England.

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