🏏ICC WC 2023: M1 - England vs New Zealand on 05/10/23 at 2 PM IST🏏

🏏ICC WC 2023: M1 - England vs New Zealand at  Narendra Modi Stadium, Ahmedabad on 05/10/2023 at 2 PM IST🏏

Tag Credit: Sutapasima

Much awaited ODI cricket world cup is finally here.  1st match will be played between the finalists of 2019 world cup New Zealand and England

England and New Zealand meet again, Super Over(s) from 2019 on many minds

Four years on from that mind-blowing World Cup final at Lord's, they raise the curtain on the 2023 edition, their ageing golden generations looking for one more chance to shine

Big Picture: … and so it goes on

So… where were we? July 14, 2019, that's where. At 7.35pm on a bright summer's evening at Lord's. Jofra Archer to Martin Guptill… Guptill to Jason Roy… Roy to Jos Buttler … Buttler to the stumps and English glory, in a finish too excruciatingly tight to create any scoreline separation across 102 overs all told.

Somewhere, in a parallel universe, that epic contest has perhaps still not reached a definitive conclusion. The playing conditions for the 2023 event stipulate that, in the event of a tie this time around, the two teams will contest as many Super Overs as it takes to separate the sides … which will be of scant consolation to New Zealand's 2019 veterans, at least six of whom are likely to line up in Ahmedabad on Thursday, but at least it will be hard for the fates to be quite so cruel again.

And so, here we are, four years later, with the 50-over World Cup picking up with a contest that, to all intents and purposes, never quite ended. Winner-takes-all it is not… but winner-takes-a-huge-stride-towards-their-endgame, it most certainly is. As England discovered in their error-strewn journey through the group stage in 2019, early losses in this round-robin format can crank up the jeopardy further down the line. Especially if you give a leg-up to one of your likeliest rivals for a top-four finish.

Either way, it's entirely fitting to begin the 2023 World Cup with this showdown, because much like that Lord's scoreline, the ODI narrative has been stuck in a stalemate since that momentous day. Does 50-over cricket even have a place in the modern world? The new president of cricket's ancient regime believes this stage is the only place for it, and, amid the T20 zeitgeist, the optional approach that many of the game's biggest stars have taken to the format in recent years (Ben Stokes and Trent Boult foremost among them) would appear to back up that assertion.

But it is still one hell of a stage - the biggest stage, quite literally, in the case of this curtain-raising contest at the Narendra Modi Stadium, where upwards of 120,000 people could yet cram in to watch the action unfold, although to judge by the current air of mild indifference permeating the tournament build-up, we might have to wait until October 14 to witness the venue in full flow.

Remarkably, it's not the first time that these two teams have opened a World Cup in Ahmedabad - way back in 1996, amid the earliest flexes of the BCCI's administrative muscle, Mike Atherton's England took on Lee Germon's New Zealand at the down-at-heel Sardar Patel Stadium (as it was known before its gigantic refit) in a contest that would retrospectively epitomise the sea-change that was slamming towards the sport.

Don't forget to send in your predictions by 2PM IST for Match One.

ENG vs NZ Weather Report Live Today And Pitch Report Of Ahmedabad Stadium, ICC World Cup 2023, Match 1

The ENG vs NZ World Cup match will start in Ahmedabad at 2 pm IST. The weather in Ahmedabad will be hot and humid unlike in Guwahati and Thiruvananthapuram, where rain played spoilsport in the warm-up games.

The temperature in the afternoon will be around 35 degrees with no chance of rain. By the evening, the temperature is expected to drop to 26 degrees. 

The Narendra Modi stadium is one of the best batting grounds in India. The average first innings score is above 250 and we might see a high-scoring contest. Spinners are expected to get more purchases in the wicket than the pacers. Dew also might come into the picture, especially with matches in October-November.

Pitch and conditions

After the rain that has dominated the build-up to this World Cup, both at last month's Asia Cup and the recent warm-ups in Guwahati, the conditions in Gujarat are set to be reassuringly hot and dry. The only question that remains is: do the teams put their money on red or black? Both types of soil are in evidence on the Ahmedabad playing square, as England discovered to their cost on their Test tour in 2021. The red strips tend to offer more pace and carry, the black strips can be slower and lower. But, just to add an extra layer of pressure to an already high-stakes game, the central strip that's been staked out for this match offers an intriguing blend of each variety. Deciding which trait is more dominant could make the difference between four seamers or three spinners. Either way, it's the same strip that was prepared for the 2023 IPL final, and that was a belter that served up 385 runs across 35 overs.

ICC World Cup 2023: England vs New Zealand , Match Details, Playing XI, Pitch Report, Head-To-Head, (Image Source: Google)

Even as there is a clamour for tickets for India matches and other marquee games in the tournament, the acid test for the tournament could be in how the rest of the matches figure in public memory, especially in India. It wouldn't be a stretch to say that no game apart from that final still holds a place dear to the heart for most cricket fans, neutral or otherwise. It is with that lingering memories that this one kickstarts with many a key performer still around, or making a comeback for the tournament.

Trent Boult against England's marauding top order, the potential return of Ben Stokes, the fire-breathing Mark Wood etc promise to offer plenty for any cricket tragic. As does the prospect of following England's journey in the tournament and if they can make a case for themselves as all-time greats by winning the World Cup twice in a row. Or could New Zealand break their rut in the white-ball game to become world champions. Momentum is often an operative word used by teams themselves in a tournament like this, giving the tournament-opener an extra edge as it starts a 48-day long journey.

How will England's ultra-aggressive methods fare on pitches that they'd find in India? Do they have a conservative zone to switch to if the situation demands so? Can New Zealand rise beyond the tag of underdogs? How will they cope up until Kane Williamson and Tim Southee return? Those are some of the questions that could have answers coming early in the tournament, perhaps even in Ahmedabad.

And if they do come, there'd be enough to whet the appetite for a World Cup where there are more enticing clashes to follow.

Stats and trivia

England and New Zealand's World Cup head-to-head is almost as close as the scoreline in the 2019 final. England have won four outright and lost five of their ten previous meetings, alongside that extraordinary tie.

Until they won at Chester-le-Street in the group stage in 2019, England had lost five in a row against New Zealand in World Cups, dating back to 1983, which was also the first time the two teams met in the opening game of the tournament.

Remember when Tim Southee was England's destroyer-in-chief in Wellington?

New Zealand's most recent World Cup win against England, in Wellington in 2015, was arguably their most epic drubbing of all time, with Tim Southee and Brendon McCullum sealing victory in a match total of 45.4 overs.

England come into this match on a run of three consecutive ODI wins over New Zealand, following their 3-1 series win on home soil last month. They were comprehensive margins as well, by a combined total of 360 runs, but so too was their one defeat in the series opener, an eight-wicket crushing with 26 balls to spare.

Trent Boult, who recently faced England in his 100th ODI, needs three more wickets to reach 200 in the format.

Quotes

"We'll make the right call: if he's not fit to play, he's not fit to play. If he is, we can make that decision. It's not the time to take big risks on someone at the start of the tournament. Nearer the end, maybe you do take more of a risk with people's injuries but it's going to be a long tournament. We'll see how the guys pull up at training and then we can make our decisions."

Jos Buttler warns that Ben Stokes may not be risked in the opening match of an arduous campaign

"The good thing about this group is we stay really level. We've done that for a long period of time, so even though it's a massive occasion tomorrow, you know, for us it's a bit of a cliché, but it is just another game. And if we can do what we do well, then hopefully we'll give ourselves a good chance towards the back end of the game."

Tom Latham, New Zealand's captain, is not getting carried away by the occasion

Did you know?

- Dawid Malan has two fifties and one hundred in three outings against New Zealand, all of which came as recently as last month

- Joe Root averages 54.54 in World Cup games with three hundreds and as many fifties

- New Zealand have tackled Adil Rashid effectively over the years, with the spinner averaging 41.22 at a S/R of 43 in ODIs

A total of 95 matches have taken place between England and New Zealand in the ODI format. England has won 45 matches while New Zealand has won 44 matches. Twice matches between the two sides ended in a tie and four matches between the two had no result. 

Total matches played: 95

Matches won by England: 45

Matches won by New Zealand:  44

Matches tied: 2

Matches ended with no result: 4 

Thanks for the tag, Raji! 

All the best to the teams!

Batters To Watch(recent stats)

Dawid Malan,

 ENG

7 M • 520 Runs • 86.67 Avg • 95.94 SR

Jos Buttler,

 ENG

8 M • 418 Runs • 52.25 Avg • 112.06 SR

Will Young,

 NZ

10 M • 361 Runs • 36.1 Avg • 80.76 SR

Daryl Mitchell,

 NZ

6 M • 251 Runs • 50.2 Avg • 96.53 SR

Bowlers To Watch(recent stats)

Adil Rashid,

 ENG

5 M • 12 Wkts • 5.98 Econ • 21 SR

Moeen Ali,

 ENG

7 M • 10 Wkts • 5.42 Econ • 29 SR

Rachin Ravindra,

 NZ

8 M • 11 Wkts • 5.69 Econ • 26.72 SR

Trent Boult,

 NZ

5 M • 10 Wkts • 5.24 Econ • 18.1 SR