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Defending champions England suffered a deflating nine-wicket loss in the opening match of the 2023 ODI World Cup against New Zealand on Thursday (October 5).
New Zealand completely outplayed England in all departments at the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad. They took revenge for the heartbreaking loss in the final during the previous edition of the tournament in 2019.
After being asked to bat first in the contest, England managed to reach 282/9 in 50 overs. Joe Root (77) and Jos Buttler (43) were the top performers for the English side in the batting department, while all the other batters scored in double figures.
English left-arm pacer Sam Curran then dismissed Kiwi opener Will Young for a golden duck in the second over to give his side a decent start. However, that proved to be the only positive for England in the second innings.
Rachin Ravindra (123*) took the attack to the bowlers and scored at a brisk rate to set the tone for the chase. Devon Conway (152*) also picked up the pace soon, and the duo went on a carnage to power New Zealand to winning shores in just 36.2 overs.
Cricket fans on social media enjoyed the encounter one-sided encounter between England and New Zealand on Thursday. They expressed their reactions through hilarious memes on social media.
Here is a collection of the best memes:
"Disappointing day, very much outplayed by New Zealand"- England captain Jos Buttler after loss in 2023 World Cup opening match
Speaking after the conclusion of the match on Thursday, English skipper Jos Buttler reflected on the dismal loss, saying:
"Disappointing day, very much outplayed by New Zealand, tough defeat to take but it is one loss to start, doesn't matter what's the margin of the defeat in a long tournament like this. I think, there's a lot of guys who have played a lot of cricket, we've beaten other teams this way, so we won't do much fuss about it."
He added:
"We were well below par, I thought we were aiming like to get 330, felt like it was a good wicket to bat but it got better under lights and the start they got off to was just brilliant, tough to build any pressure."
"We lacked at being clinical, some of the dismissals, weren't right shots and we will keep being positive and it showed that we need to get good scores on such tracks, can't be too defensive."
Pakistan will square off against the Netherlands in the second match of the 2023 World Cup on Friday (October 6) in Hyderabad.
