New Zealand and South Africa Stake Their Claim: The CWC Weekly Round-Up
In the first round of fixtures in the ODI World Cup, there has been upsets, outstanding batting displays and a star emerging in orange.
Here are five things we have learned from the first five matches in India.
Disappointing start for England
There was certainly lots of excitement surrounding the opening match of the World Cup, a replay of the iconic 2019 final at Lords of England V New Zealand.
It did not go to plan for the favourites England, who were crushed by the dominant 273-run partnership from Devon Conway and Rachin Ravindra.
Conway and Ravindra finished the innings on 152* and 123* respectively
The batting performance of England was uncharacteristic. Despite every batter getting into double figures, there were too many soft dismissals.
The innings of Bairstow (33), Root (77) and Buttler (43), were useful but they went out too easily. To rub salt in the wound, the pitch in Ahmedabad was a great surface to bat on.
The only English bowler who can come away from the match happy with their performance is Sam Curran. He took the only New Zealand wicket of Will Young and was dangerous in the opening overs.
Curran was not helped by his fellow bowlers, particularly Chris Woakes and Mark Wood. The stars of the Ashes could not translate their test form into the ODI format.
Woakes opened the bowling very loosely and conceded too many runs whilst Mark Wood only managed five overs and conceded 55 runs from them.
England need to bounce back against Bangladesh on Tuesday.
South Africa and New Zealand will push for the semi-final spots
Whilst neither England, Pakistan, India and Australia looked convincing, South Africa and New Zealand were excellent in their opening matches.
New Zealand managed the absence of Kane Williamson expertly. Rachin Ravindra looked imperious, replacing the legend at number three in the batting order and scoring 123 off 96 balls at the age of just 23.
Also, the captaincy of Tom Lathan was superb, with Tim Southee and Lockie Ferguson injured, there was more emphasis put on the part-time spin of Ravindra and Glenn Phillips who bowled brilliantly.
South Africa, meanwhile, beat Sri Lanka resoudingly by 102 runs. Their batting order shone; as Quinton de Kock, Rassie Van der Dussen and Aiden Markram all smashed centuries. The latter making his in a record 49 balls.
Markram’s century was the fastest ever in an ODI World Cup
It was a good demonstration of the level of talent that South Africa have with the bat.
Bowlers triumph in India win
Six of Australia’s top seven batters were outdone by spin in their match against India as Ravindra Jadeja shone with the key wickets of Steve Smith and Marnus Labuschagne.
Meanwhile, the lack of spin in Australia’s squad was exposed in the middle overs.
The partnership of Virat Kohli and KL Rahul bought home the victory for India in Chennai after three early wickets had India in a worrying position chasing Australia’s 199 runs.
Kohli’s patience at the crease was crucial
It was a bad day at the office for Adam Zampa who conceded 53 runs from his eight overs. The lack of another specialist spinner in the aftermath of Ashton Agar’s injury prior to the tournament was clear to see.
Netherlands won’t be a pushover
One of the shock performances of the opening round of fixtures was Netherlands’ against Pakistan. Albeit, they lost, but there were some positive takeaways from their match against the nation second in the ODI rankings.
They started brilliantly with the key wicket of Babar Azam who could not get going; scoring five off 18 balls.
The bright spark for “the Flying Dutchmen” was Bas de Leede. The 23-year-old all-rounder took bowling figures of 4-62 and scored 67 runs in his innings. As Netherlands captain Scott Edwards said after the game “he just needed someone to go with him”.
De Leede and Ravindra, both at 23 years of age, are two young players who have started the tournament brilliantly
He may not be able to ‘leede’ the Netherlands into the semi-finals but he is certainly not doing his reputation any harm.
Afghanistan struggle against Bangladesh
The game between Afghanistan and Bangladesh was a good chance to see two of the lower ranked teams in the tournament battle it out.
It was not much of a battle, though, as Bangladesh cruised to a six wicket win after a tame opening batting performance from Afghanistan.
Bangladesh’s Najmul Hossain Shanto ended the innings on 59*
In the 2019 World Cup, Afghanistan failed to bat out all of their overs in seven out of the nine games they played and have started the 2023 tournament in a similar manner.
The former England batter Jonathan Trott has lots of work to do as the Afghanistan coach.
