ISLAMABAD: New Zealand batters Devon Conway and Rachin Ravindra outclassed and rattled the English Bowling line to win the first encounter of the ICC Cricket World Cup played at Ahmad Abad India on Thursday. New Zealand Beat England by 9 wickets. The credit also goes to Kewis bowlers to restrict England to 282 on a flat wicket.
Both New Zeeland and England were the finalists of the 2019 World Cup, when England became successful via run rate after the super over. However, this team the kiwis provided no chance to the England while registering an easy victory.
Chasing 283 to win, New Zealand took a flying start despite loosing the wicket of Will Young for having no score. The other opener Devon Conway and number three batter Rachin Ravindra dominated the English bowlers from the very begging and completed their half centuries in no time. Meanwhile they also kept run rate over 7 runs per over and played some tremendous shorts on all sides of the boundary. Both the players also managed to registered a 200 runs partnership for their side followed by their superb centuries.
Being a batting paradise, the English bowlers were just waiting for a miracle as both the players took the scoreboard forward with ease and took the game away from England. After completing their centuries, they never stopped and played their innings more easily. David Convey played even more special innings while reaching 150 mark. Both the batters were unbeaten.
Earlier amid the first encounter Kewis won the toss and elected to field. England scored 282 for 9 in 50, thanks to Kewis bowlers for continuously dominating the opponents.
English Openers Bairstow and David Malan took a cautious start while taking the score to 40 in the 8th over. However, in the 8th over Malan was caught behind the stumps by Latham in the bowling of Henry at 14.
After the first dismissal the English batters continued to add runs to the total but in the 12th over suffered with the dismissal of Bairstow on 33 in the 12th over when the total score reached 64. Number four batter Harry Brook however added some quick runs to the total, but was soon dismissed on 25 while facing 16 balls.
Number five batter Moeen Ali also spent a brief time on the crease and added just 14 runs for his side. However, when the skipper Joss Butler came to the show, he managed to take the innings to a solid position along with the number three batter Joe Root. Both the players took their side to a bit stable position despite repeated falling of the wickets. Buttler added valuable 43 runs to the English team when he was dismissed by Henry. At the time England were 188 for 5 in the 33 overs.
Kewis Bowlers Dominate English Batters
England batters played well particularly Joe Root who added a splendid 77 runs to the total. However, the Kewis bowlers managed to take wickets continuously, which restricted England to cross 300 mark, which was predicted in the start of the inning. However, the last pair (Rashid and Wood) of English side show some resistance to take his side to near 300. England scored 282 in 50 over.
Almost all bowlers of the Kewis took wicket. Mat Henry was the leading wicket taker with three dismissals in his 10 overs. Santner and Philips took 2 wickets each while Trent Boult, and Ravindra took one wicket each.
