‘Yeh jeetenge world cup?‘ – Fans react to New Zealand’s nine-wicket against England to open their 2023 World Cup campaign

New Zealand began their 2023 ODI World Cup tournament with an easy nine-wicket win over England. This was sweet revenge by the Kiwis for the heartbreaking loss they suffered in the 2019 World Cup Final. Devon Conway and Rachin Ravindra were the stars with the bat as they scored memorable centuries. The English bowlers looked clueless and had no reply to the assault from the New Zealand batting duo.

It was Tom Latham who won the toss and chose to put England into bat. The first game of the 2023 ODI World Cup saw some huge names missing in action. Ben Stokes did not feature for England due to injury. The Kiwis missed the veteran duo of Kane Williamson and Tim Southee.

Defending champions England were left battered and bruised by the New Zealand batting unit. Devon Conway and Rachin Ravindra took the English bowling attack and smashed it to pieces. England batted first after New Zealand won the toss and chose to field. Dawid Malan and Jonny Bairstow put on 40 runs for the first wicket. Bairstow got the 2023 ODI World Cup to a great start with a flicked six off Boult.

New Zealand vanquishes ghosts of 2019 ODI World Cup

Matt Henry struck the first blow when he had Dawid Malan out caught behind for 14. Bairstow was joined by Joe Root as the pair added 24 runs for the 2^nd wicket. Mitchell Santner got the big wicket of Bairstow for 33. Harry Brook was looking dangerous but it was all over due to a rush of blood. After hitting 2 fours and a six off Rachin Ravindra, Brook went for another big hit. This time the young Englishman was caught by Devon Conway for 25 off just 16 balls. Joe Root and Jos Buttler added 70 runs for the 5^th wicket before the England captain fell for 43. Then it was the turn of Joe Root when he was sent back to the hut by Glenn Phillips for 77 as England scored 282 for 9.

Chasing 283 to win, Will Young was out for a first-ball duck falling to Sam Curran caught down the leg side. Devon Conway and Rachin Ravindra then added an unbeaten 273 run-stand for the 2^nd wicket. The left-handed duo put the English bowling to swords with Conway scoring a career-best 152 not out. Ravindra who scored his first ODI ton was not out on 123 off just 96 balls with 11 fours and 5 sixes. New Zealand won the game by 9 wickets with 82 balls left to play.

Here’s how the fans reacted –

NEW ZEALAND CHASED DOWN 283/1 IN JUST 36.2 OVERS….!!!

This is a historical start to the World Cup – the defending champions crushed by the runner ups of the previous edition. The true dark horses of the World Cup! pic.twitter.com/8Kwbj1KxCN

— Mufaddal Vohra (@mufaddal_vohra) October 5, 2023

Aasani se chase kar liye. Bahut achha khela Newzealand

— Ankit Verma (@TechyWicket) October 5, 2023

ye jeetenge world cup?

— Arshhhhhh (@ArshVAL) October 5, 2023

this wi dent ENG's NRR badly

— anees ur rehman (@an33s) October 5, 2023

https://twitter.com/DenissForReal/status/1709948852541988980

https://twitter.com/Mukeshbaitu/status/1709949000923906179

England Loss.. India win world cup

— Vishwajit Patil (@_VishwajitPatil) October 5, 2023

NZ ne buri tarah se hraya ENG को

— Mukesh Bangra (चौधरी) (@MukeshBangra12) October 5, 2023

And the revenge is taken

— Talha Zeb (@PakhtoonSoul) October 5, 2023