Defending champions England were hammered by New Zealand in the opening game of World Cup 2023 which was pretty much a one sided affair. Conway and Ravindra launched a stellar attack that they made a mockery of the boundaries. Nobody expected England to look this clueless. But Ravindra and Conway just tore the bowlers apart with a unbeaten 271-run stand. Chris Woakes leaked runs with the new ball, while Sam Curran began with two maiden overs which also had a wicket. Mark Wood bowled 150+ but he travelled 200+ to the boundary. Adil Rashid, Moeen Ali, Liam Livingstone were ineffective throughout.
New Zealand stand-in captain Tom Latham won the toss and chose to bowl first. England lost wickets at regular intervals while Joe Root anchored much its innings. His 70-run stand with captain Jos Buttler off 72 balls was England's highest. England bat deep but they lost six wickets before the 40th over. Eventually, they got into a real spot of bother when Root fell for 77 off 86. The last 10 overs turned out to be a grind for England and they eventually managed to get to a score of 282/9 in 50 overs. Kane Williamson, as was expected, is sitting out for the Kiwis while England are without Ben Stokes.
