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“Attack” was the keyword for Jos Buttler and his England team before the 2023 ODI World Cup opener against New Zealand in Ahmedabad on Thursday.

When asked if England would go out there and “defend” the World Cup title that they won on home soil in 2019, Buttler said: “I don’t see us as defending champions. We’re not defending anything. I want us to attack so I don’t like the word defending.”

However, on Thursday, most of his team’s players neither attacked, nor were the team able to defend a total of 282, as Rachin Ravindra (123*) and Devon Conway (152*) made light work of the chase, sealing the deal in just 36.2 overs.

Also read: Who is Rachin Ravindra? 

Not only did New Zealand get revenge over England after their heartbreak in 2019, but also the Black Caps gave birth to a 23-year-old all-rounder in Rachin Ravindra, who seems to be the real deal.

Named after two absolute legends, and both Rahul & Sachin will be proud of the knock #RachinRavindra played today!

Sensational 💯 on World Cup debut by the youngster! 😍

Tune-in to #WorldCupOnStar
5th Oct to 19th Nov | Star Sports Network#CWC23 #Cricket pic.twitter.com/gGgMB5OTs5

— Star Sports (@StarSportsIndia) October 5, 2023

Rachin-Conway stand

New Zealand were missing permanent skipper Kane Williamson for the clash against England.

Over the last few months, Williamson had been nursing a knee injury, and despite playing in warm-up matches against Pakistan and South Africa, he wasn’t fully fit to play against England.

In comes Rachin Ravindra. Ravindra, 23, had only made his ODI debut earlier this year, against Sri Lanka in March, and had not batted at the number three spot in the 50 over format.

In fact, he had batted in the number seven position in ODIs eight times, and managed just 179 runs at an average of 29.83.

On Thursday, although Rachin was playing his maiden ODI on Indian soil, it did not seem that way, and his intent was very clear — attack.

So much so that Rachin had an understanding partner in Devon Conway which helped the team’s cause. The two know each other very well from their Wellington days and Ravindra even said how ‘lucky’ he was to have Conway at the other end.

When Rachin walked into bat as early as the second over, he had Sam Curran to deal with. He fended off Sam Curran’s inswinger in the first over he faced, before aggressively taking on Chris Woakes early on in his innings.

In the third over, Ravindra hit Chris Woakes for consecutive boundaries. The first one was a half-volley from Woakes. The England bowlers had bowled many of those half-volleys on Thursday, and on this occasion, Ravindra found the gap between midwicket and mid-on for a four.

Two very special, brilliant centuries tonight. Tremendous class from Conway and a brave, free-stroking one from Rachin Ravindra who has announced himself with such freedom on the world stage.

— Harsha Bhogle (@bhogleharsha) October 5, 2023

The next one was another half-volley. The result: Same, a boundary, this time Ravindra whipped it wide of mid-on fence, and Ravindra was not done with Woakes just yet.

On the fifth ball of the third over, Woakes went short of length on off, only for Ravindra to nail the pull over the mid-wicket region.

Boundaries kept flowing for Ravindra, and one of the major highlights of his knock was when he punished Mark Wood’s 148.7kmph short ball for a six towards square leg fence in the seventh over. He collected the boundary on the fifth ball of the over, and the very next ball, Ravindra slotted between cover and point region for a four.

From eight from nine balls at one stage, Ravindra was cruising in full throttle at 38 off just 23 deliveries.

Once England got to know that the only way of stopping Ravindra was spin, they turned to Moeen Ali and Adil Rashid to put the situation under control.

However, England’s plan of bringing the spinners into action was to no avail, as Ravindra punished Moeen in the 10^th over with a six over mid-wicket region.

Just a couple of overs later, in the 12^th, Ravindra was at it once again. This time, it was a tossed up delivery from Moeen as Ravindra went over long-on for a maximum, that would bring up his half-century in 36 balls.

On the fourth ball of the 31^st over, Ravindra would bring up his maiden ODI century , reaching the milestone in 82 deliveries to become New Zealand’s fastest centurion in World Cups, only moments after Conway had reached the milestone in 83 balls.

Conway, meanwhile, had gone big right from the word GO. He collected a boundary in the first ball of the chase, driving between point and cover off Woakes’ ball, and that really set the template for the Kiwis’ run-chase.

🔸Career-best individual scores
🔸An unbeaten 273-run stand

Rachin Ravindra and Devon Conway were in top form in the #CWC23 opener 🔥#ENGvNZ pic.twitter.com/BJlEmcmstl

— ICC (@ICC) October 5, 2023

Conway, too, reached his fifty in 36 balls, and although there was nothing much to differentiate his batting from Ravindra’s, Conway collected even more boundaries (22 when compared to Ravindra’s 16).

In the end, it was not the boundaries that mattered, but the way which team attacked better.

Ravindra and Conway were calm and composed in their approach. They did not take risks and batted with full freedom.

England lose the plot without Ben Stokes

England, however, felt the absence of Ben Stokes big time. Stokes missed the contest with a niggle on his hip.

England took their attacking mindset a bit too literally. At one stage, when Bairstow and Buttler were in the middle, England looked as though they would surpass the 300-run mark, but the lack of settled batters hurt their case.

One such settled batter was Joe Root (77), who kept bringing up the reverse sweep at regular intervals, until he was cleaned up by Glenn Phillips in the 42^nd over.

Yes, there was Jos Buttler (43) and Jonny Bairstow (33), but England needed someone who could carry  them closer to a total like 320-330. In the latter half of the England innings, that was Joe Root, but ever since he departed, England’s hopes of even 300 diminished. As for the result, it’s safe to say England were at least 30-40 runs short.

Buttler himself said that England were aiming for the 330-run mark.

“Lot of guys in our team have played a lot of cricket. We have beaten teams this way before and we have been at the end of such results before. I thought we were well below par, not judging by the way New Zealand batted, because we were aiming for somewhere around 330,” he said after the match.

Thursday was a reality check for England. The answer to the question if they would go onto defend the title is six weeks away, but for now, it’s for them to take it one match at a time.

Next up, England take on Bangladesh on 10 October in Dharamshala, whereas New Zealand travel to Hyderabad to face Netherlands a day earlier.

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