Ahmedabad: Defending champions England didn’t know what hit them in the World Cup opener on Friday evening.
A twin hurricane, in the form of left-handers Devon Conway and Rachin Ravindra, blew them away at the Narendra Modi Stadium as New Zealand waltzed to a 9-wicket victory with plenty to spare.
Chasing 283, New Zealand lost Will Young in the second over. Then, Conway and Ravindra took charge. Playing pure cricketing shots, Conway and World Cup debutant Ravindra spared no England bowler and scored at high rate from the word go.
Conway, who played a match-winning innings for Chennai Super Kings at this same venue in the IPL final just over four months ago, reached his century off 83 balls and remained unbeaten on 152 (121 balls, 19×4, 3×6). Ravindra got to his landmark in 82 balls and was 123 not out off 96 balls (11×4, 5×6).
Ravindra, son of Bengaluru couple Ravi Krishnamurthy and Deepa Krishnamurthy who moved from Bengaluru to Wellington in 1990, wasn’t supposed to play the match, but got lucky because of injuries to Kane Williamson and Lockie Ferguson.
Ravindra and Conway were involved in a mammoth unbeaten partnership of 273 runs after England had posted 282/9 in 50 overs.
Brief scores
England 282/9 in 50 overs (Joe Root 77, Jos Buttler 43; Matt Henry 3/48). New Zealand 283/1 in 36.2 overs (Devon Conway 152*, Rachin Ravindra 123*).
Result: New Zealand won by 9 wickets.
Man of the Match: Rachin Ravindra.
Next match: Pakistan vs The Netherlands (Hyderabad, 2 pm).
