Conway (152), and Ravindra (123) hit tons to post a massive victory against defending champions
Sports Bulletin Report
Ahmadabad (India): A couple of notable performances with the bat, Dion Conway (152), and Richan Ravindra (123) guided New Zealand to outclass defending champions England by 9 wickets in the opening match of the ICC World Cup 2023 here at Narendra Modi Cricket Stadium on Thursday.
Kiwis acting Captain Tom Latham won the toss and decided to field first on a flat surface. Kane Williamson could not play the game owing to a fitness problem. A duo of English batters David Mullan and Jonny Bairstow started the innings and put 40 runs for the first wicket. Milan fell on the bowling of Matt Henry after scoring only 14 runs, wicketkeeper Latham collected his catch. Bairstow 33 runs.
Meanwhile, veteran Joe Root played a responsible game, scoring a half-century and adding 70 runs for the fifth wicket with captain Joe Buttler. Buttler looked in good form and scored 43 runs with 2 sixes and 2 fours but was caught by the wicketkeeper in an attempt to cut an inbound delivery from Matt Henry.
Liam Livingston also failed to play big innings and fell victim to Trent Boult after scoring 20 runs. Chris Woakes could also not rescue the English team and left-off the ground on score 11 runs while Sam Curran scored 14 runs and became the third victim of Henry. England scored 282 runs for the loss of 9 wickets in the allotted overs. For New Zealand, Matt Henry took 3 wickets while Mitchell Santner and Glenn Phillips took two wickets each.
Chasing a target of 283 runs, New Zealand opened the innings with Will Young and Conway. However, after the first wicket, the English bowlers were left desperate for wickets as Dion Conway and Richan Vendra starred for the English bowlers on the day on a batting friendly wicket. Both the players not only showed excellent batting but also played aggressively and scored runs at an average of about 8 runs per over and demoralized the English bowlers.
After completing their half-centuries, both became more aggressive and quickly progressed towards the century. Conway soon completed his century off 83 balls and Jadeja followed him with a century off 82 balls. Both the players continued to play well and easily took their team to the target in the 37th over without any further loss to win by 9 wickets.
New Zealand’s excellent batting can be gauged from the fact that there were 82 balls left when New Zealand reached the target. Dion Conway scored 152 off 121 balls with 3 sixes and 19 fours while Richan Ravindra scored 123 runs off 96 balls with 5 sixes and 11 fours.
