With England and New Zealand scheduled to play the openers match on October 5, New Zealand player Matt Henry bags the first wicket of the ICC Men’s ODI World Cup 2023.
Matt Henry bags first wicket of the World Cup 2023
The first match of the World Cup 2023 is scheduled to be played at Narendra Modi Stadium, Ahmedabad. With New Zealand winning the toss, they chose to bowl. Jonny Bairstow and Dawid Malan opened the innings for England while Trent Boult opened the bowling attack. Bairstow gets England off to a quick start as he scored 11 runs in the first over including one six and one boundary.
Matt Henry was impressive as he had a maiden over in the second over of the innings. He dismissed Dawid Malan with 14 runs in the 8th over. The Right-arm Medium bowler who made his ODI debut in 2014 has played in 75 innings bagging 130 wickets with an average of 26.2 and an economy of 5.17. He has a five-wicket haul for 30 runs which remains his career best in ODI.
Jonny Bairstow had an impressive start scored 33 runs and was sent out by Santner on the last ball of the 13th over. By the dismissal of Bairstow England was down to two wickets scoring 64 runs.
England had won its first World Cup title in 2019 after defeating New Zealand in the finals. The opener match of the current edition looks like a rematch of the previous edition finals. Despite both sides having their key players injured and sidelined, they are eager to clinch the victory in the opener game.
Ben Stokes being the specialist batter was sidelined for the opener match due to the hip niggle he sustained during the practice session on October 4. He was impressive on the third ODI match of the New Zealand tour of England where he scored 182 runs on 124 balls. On the other hand, New Zealand will be missing the services of the pace bowler Tim Southee and Skipper Kane Williamson.
Tim Southee sustained a right-hand thumb fracture during the fourth ODI match against England last month and underwent surgery. He was included in the squad after the positive results from the surgery.
Kane Williamson who suffered a torn ACL injury in April played in the warmup games but was rested in the first match of the World Cup openers.
England playing 11
Jonny Bairstow, Dawid Malan, Joe Root, Harry Brook, Jos Buttler (c & wk), Liam Livingstone, Moeen Ali, Sam Curran, Chris Woakes, Adil Rashid, Mark Wood
New Zealand playing 11
Devon Conway, Will Young, Rachin Ravindra, Daryl Mitchell, Tom Latham (c & wk), Glenn Phillips, Mark Chapman, James Neesham, Mitchell Santner, Matt Henry, Trent Boult
