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Ken Williamson hugged Rachin Ravindra from dug out to applaud! If he is fit, he is supposed to bat at number three instead of Racine. Williamson wasn't there, but Racine didn't seem to mind his absence.
Young all-rounder Rachin played a big role in the victory of the Kiwis by scoring a century in the debut match of the World Cup, making the English bowlers look ordinary. With the career best century of Devon Conway, a regular IPL player in India. Both of them scored centuries in the first match of the World Cup. Defending champion England won.
Rachin-Conway's batting exhibition saw New Zealand beat England by 9 wickets in the opening match of the World Cup. England-New Zealand face off at the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad on Thursday (October 5). England scored 282 runs for 9 wickets after losing the toss. New Zealand won with 82 balls to chase after losing only 1 wicket.
Nama Conway was unbeaten on 152 in the opener. This is Conway's fifth century in the 23rd ODI. Earlier the highest was 138. Conway scored an 83-ball century in just 121 balls. His 150th innings was decorated with 19 fours and 3 sixes.
Racine was unbeaten on 123 off 96 balls, providing good company to Conway. He got his century off just 82 balls. His innings was 11 fours and 5 sixes! The duo scored 273 runs off 211 balls. But the opener Will Young came back for zero runs after chasing the run. Then began the Conway-Rachin anthology. Sam Curran took 1 wicket for the English.
Earlier, English batsman Jonny Bairstow signaled a big run by opening the innings with a six. But as time ticked on, the Kiwi bowlers took the reins. Matt Henry opened the wicket by sending back David Malan for 40 runs. 14 runs came from Malan's bat.
Joe Root kept one side down for three. The highest 77 runs came from his bat. Root got his fifty off 57 balls. On the other side, wickets were falling at regular intervals. If Adil Rashid-Mark Wood did not add 30 runs from 26 balls in the last pair, the English would not have had this run. Rashid remained unbeaten on 15 and Wood on 13. Meanwhile captain Jos Buttler scored 43 runs. 25 runs came from Harry Brook's bat. No one else could cross the twenty mark.
Henry took the maximum 3 wickets for the Kiwis. Mitchell Santner and Glenn Phillips took 2 wickets. Rachin became man of the match by scoring 1 wicket as well as a century.
After being tied in the Super Over in the 19 World Cup final, New Zealand lost behind the number of boundaries. From that end, the start of the Kiwis in the World Cup has been like a dream. The end was not beautiful in England, would it be beautiful in India? New Zealand has done a great job in the opening match, waiting for the final!
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