England skipper Jos Buttler admitted they were outplayed by New Zealand in their World Cup opener at the Narendra Modi Stadium, Ahmedabad on Thursday. The last time these two teams had met in a World Cup, the match had ended in a thrilling fashion but this time New Zealand made sure they got over the line with comfortable ease.
The Kiwis convincingly won by nine wickets and with 82 balls to spare as Rachin Ravindra and Devon Conway scored fine centuries after England could only manage 282 runs on the board. England, who have once again come into this World Cup with the intention of playing aggressively, kept losing wickets at regular intervals, which pegged them on the back foot.
Joe Root top-scored with 77 whereas Buttler scored 43 but none of the other English batters could show much resistance despite getting promising starts. On the other hand, Rachin Ravindra and Devon Conway, two lads from Wellington, showed their class and bonhomie at the crease.
Both the left-handers played risk-free shots and looked in complete control throughout their innings. Ravindra became the youngest New Zealander to score a century in a World Cup fixture whereas Conway became the second oldest to score a hundred on World Cup debut.
Both the southpaws timed the ball to perfection and England’s bowling looked toothless, barring Sam Curran’s new-ball spell. Ravindra scored an unbeaten 123 whereas Conway smashed an undefeated 152 as the duo added a fine alliance of 273 runs for the second wicket, the fourth-highest in World Cup history and the highest for the Blackcaps.
Jos Buttler said in the post-match presentation, “Disappointing day, outplayed by New Zealand, tough to take that defeat. One loss, still a long tournament. 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. I thought we were well below par, not judging by the way New Zealand batted, because we were aiming for somewhere around 330.”
Buttler added, “It was a good wicket to bat and I think it got even better in the second innings. Tough to build any pressure with the start they got. We lacked being clinical with our executions. Some of those dismissals, the right shots weren’t quite executed.”
It was a dominating performance from the Kiwis with both bat and ball and they completely outplayed the defending champions.
England will play their second match of the tournament against Bangladesh at the Himachal Pradesh Cricket Association Stadium, Dharamsala on Tuesday.
