The Blacks Cap of New Zealand pulled off the first shock of the 2023 ICC Cricket World Cup with a nine wicket thrashing of England in the opening match in Ahmedabad.

The reigning champions, England had a bat first and scored 282/9 in their allotted 50 overs with Joe Root scoring 77.

In reply, the South African-born Devon Conway smashed 152 not out and Rachin Ravinda scored an unbeaten 123 in a 273-run partnership for the second wicket to lead New Zealand to the victory with 13.4 overs to spare.

The player of the match, Ravinda, said it was special to score a ton in his World Cup debut.

“Yeah, I think the first one, I guess everyone says, is pretty special,” said Ravinda.

“It was pretty cool to be able to share that with Devon, my sort of good mate. But yeah, it was a good game for us as a team, as a whole.

“I think it was just trying to keep it pretty simple.

“I think the way me and Dev sort of go about it is being able to check in with each other ball after ball and making sure what's important stays important.

“The process and your routines as opposed to just blindly trying to take someone down or do something rash I think which is quite cool being able to share that same process with Dev.”

The England captain, Jos Buttler, in turn said they were outplayed on the day but the tournament is still long and there is no need for panic stations yet.

“Yeah, disappointed, we were completely outplayed. But the first thing that springs to mind is whether you do lose by a run or a defeat like that, it is one loss at the start of a very long tournament. “So, that’s something that I’d be encouraging everyone to remember.

“It's certainly a tough loss to take. We were outplayed but you know we've got a lot of experience in the room - guys who've been through lots of things and faced defeats like that before.

“So just as we had won the game, we don't get too high and we don't get too low when we lose as well.”

On Friday at 10:30 the Netherlands will face Pakistan in Hyderabad, while on Saturday at 10:30 South Africa will be in action against Sri Lanka in Delhi.

Morgan Piek OFM Sport