New Zealand Serve England A Warmed-up Dish Of Revenge In World Cup Opener
New Zealand thrashed England in the WC opener [AP]
Given the weather in Ahmedabad the revenge was not served cold but it will have been very sweet for the Kiwis as they proved way too hot for a misfiring England to handle.
In truth, perhaps, the portents for this crushing New Zealand victory go back as far as 1996 where Ahmedabad was also the venue for England and New Zealand to contest an opening World Cup fixture .The Kiwis won on that occasion too, although by the considerably slimmer margin of 11 runs.
Nathan Astle’s ton was the defining innings then. Yesterday it was two resolute and belligerent Black Caps, Devon Conway and Rachin Ravindra whose dash and application powered their team past England’s modest target.
Despite plenty of cricket against England recently, you couldn’t help but feel that the Black Caps had always felt that this was the one that really mattered to finally lay the ghost of the 2019 boundary countback. England in turn, will be desperate to ensure that this is the only parallel with the disastrous 1996 campaign, where Michael Atherton’s squad barely scraped out of the group stage before falling to eventual winners Sri Lanka in the quarter finals.
From an English perspective, there is no way to sugar coat yesterday. It was, by any measure, an absolute shellacking. As England’s talisman Ben Stokes could only look on, they were out gunned and out thought with both bat and ball. How they will hope that the ‘hip niggle’ keeping Stokes on the sidelines yesterday has stopped niggling by the time they reach Dharamsala to face Bangladesh.
A step up in performance level in all departments is needed to ensure a mauling by the Tigers is averted. A comfortable victory in the warm up game in Guwahati will be no guarantee of another triumph in the Himalayan foothills if England don’t sharpen up their act.
The Ahmedabad pitch was on the same strip as that used for the 2023 IPL Final, apparently crafted from a combination of both red and black soil. New Zealand, with the benefit of fielding first, utilised the blend of turn and slower bounce with much greater aplomb than their opponents.
Too often, England got themselves in, carried the attack to New Zealand, but then lost their wickets when the ball didn’t quite come onto the bat at the pace that most suits them. Accuracy and pace off from the Kiwi’s always kept England in check and below par.
In fact, England managed to create an ODI record in defeat as all 11 players reached double figures. The first time any team has done so in ODIs (men’s or women’s) according to BBC statistician Andy Zaltzman.
But too often losing wickets with injudicious shots became their undoing and only Joe Root sustained the combination of application and judgement required, where others holed out or edged as they were subjected to canny and disciplined Kiwi bowling.
New Zealand chased down the total easily [AP]
It had begun with such promise too with both bat and ball for England. Bairstow swung the second ball of the World Cup for six and got himself to 33, but then miscued his checked drive to the seemingly infallible Mitchell at long off.
The canny Ravindra deployed the perfect ‘rope a dope’ over on Harry Brook, absorbing a violent assault that cost 15 off his first 5 balls, but then getting the last ball to sick in the surface enough for Brook to mistime and splice to Ravindra’s Wellington team mate Devon Conway at deep square.
How that same Wellington combination would return to haunt England! Again, early promise was served up with the ball by Sam Curran, who conjured ample movement in the air and off the pitch, accounting for Will Young with his (and Curran’s) first ball, strangled down leg. But that, was as good as it got for England, whilst it just kept getting better for New Zealand thanks to the unstoppable Conway and Ravindra.
Ravindra was named Rachin by his father after two Indian greats - Rahul Dravid and Sachin Tendulkar. His combination of fluent stroke play and resistance in Ahmedabad reflected the combined talents of both. Conway simply powered on, and on, and on, with England increasing unable to find answers. This was his fourth ODI century of the year, which takes some doing. His 153 along with Ravindra’s 123, saw off England’s target with no less than 82 balls to spare.
Where Boult, Henry and Santner had bowled so frugally and effectively, England found no joy with pace or spin. This never looked like a pitch where extreme pace would be the answer, whatever the question, and a rusty Mark Wood found neither direction or variation.
He will desperately hope Dharamsala conditions are more helpful and forgiving. In truth however, no matter how an increasingly frustrated Jos Buttler shuffled his bowling pack, Conway and Ravindra were simply too good.
Buttler doesn’t want England to be known as ‘defending’ champions, fearing the word defence to be against England’s attacking ethos. Whilst that is a commendable statement of intent, he and his charges will need to be sharper in all departments come next Tuesday if they want to attack their way to a title defence.
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