2023 Cricket World Cup (match 01)
The New Zealand left-handed batsmen destroyed England’s cricket pride and won the first match of the 2023 Cricket World Cup today.
The first match of the tournament was held between England, the world champions, and New Zealand, the runners-up.
England’s target of 282 for 9 wickets was easily achieved by New Zealand, shocking the English cricket fans.
After Will Young was dismissed for 0 as New Zealand’s first wicket, the young left-handed batsman Rachin Ravindra, who joined the other left-handed batsman Devon Conway at the other end, managed to finish the game very quickly by displaying a very beautiful batting attack.
The New Zealand team won the toss and invited the England team to bat first. Although the England team batted well in the batsmen-friendly Ahmedabad strip. But none of the batsmen could make a big inning. Only Joe Root scored 77 runs and faced 86 balls for it. In the end, The New Zealand bowlers managed to limit England’s innings to 282 runs. However, the England team failed to find the right rhythm in the match. They played a traditional one-day match today.
But since the beginning of the 2023 World Cup, many teams followed a very aggressive batting pattern. Almost all the practice matches held before the start of the main tournament surpassed this match pattern. The New Zealand team implemented the same aggressive match pattern against England today. This method will turn this year’s World Cup series into a new dimension.
However, England must have learned their lesson after losing today’s match.
Also, they need to understand how weak England bowlers are when bowling to left-handers.
Devon Conway’s 152 for New Zealand’s victory was so impressive that the England fielders had to run all over the field to try and stop the ball on its way to the boundary, but it always failed. Conway’s batting was so fast. When the end of the match was approaching, it seemed as if the English fielders had given up on the match.
Ravindra, the other left-handed batsman who joined Conway, scored 123 runs. Both batsmen handled England’s fast bowlers and spinners very easily.
The New Zealand team used only 36.2 overs to win this match. Therefore, the Kiwi team managed to maintain a very valuable net run rate from the first match. The Kiwi captain understood well that the net run rate is very important to go to the semi-finals because of the round-robin system.
The next match for New Zealand is against the Netherlands. The Netherlands is the weakest team in the tournament. Therefore, there is no doubt that the New Zealand team will win that match very easily. If the New Zealand batsmen show their fast batting pattern in that match, they who were runners-up last season will win the World Cup for their country this year. It is not a matter of surprise.
