- Wednesday, February 26, 2025
England were led in the tournament by Mike Atherton and they were knocked out by eventual champions Sri Lanka in the quarter-finals.
By: Shubham Ghosh
THE 50-over cricket World Cup of 2023 will kick off on Thursday (5) with a game between defending champions England and New Zealand, who finished as the runners-up in the 2019 edition. The two teams will lock horns at the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad in the western Indian state of Gujarat, which is also the world’s biggest cricket stadium.
Historically, it will be the second time that England and New Zealand will play the opening game in a World Cup played in India. It had also happened in 1996 when the two sides met each other in the first match of the tournament and it also happened at the same venue, which was then called Sardar Patel Stadium before its complete overhauling and renaming.
The new stadium was opened for the public in February 2020 and the ‘Namaste Trump’ event was organised there to welcome former US president Donald Trump and first lady Melania Trump.
Coming back to the match in the 1996 World Cup which was played on February 14, it was a Group B fixture in which England captain Mike Atherton won the toss and elected to field. New Zealand, led by Lee Germon, built their innings around a century from opener Nathan Astle (101 off 132 balls) who was making his World Cup debut. Chris Cairns made 36 off 30 and Stephen Fleming 28 off 47. Bits-and-pieces scores from other batters saw the Black Caps posting a competitive total of 239 for 6 in 50 overs.
For England, part-time spinner Graeme Hick was the most successful bowler with two wickets for 45 runs while pacers Dominik Cork and Peter Martin and spinner Richard Illingworth took one wicket each.
The Three Lions lost Atherton (1) early but Alec Stewart (34 off 71) and Hick (85 off 102) gave them a good launching pad by adding 99 runs for the second wicket. But a middle-order slump saw England lose the plot as they were reduced to 185 for 7 after a struggling Hick departed. Craig White (13), Cork (19) and Darren Gough (15) tried to resurrect the chase but Dion Nash’s three for 26 and Gavin Larsen’s two for 33 ensured that the Kiwis never lost the grip they had on the game.
England managed 228 for the loss of nine wickets in their stipulated 50 overs to lose by 11 runs. For New Zealand, Danny Morrison, Shane Thomson and Chris Harris claimed a wicket each.
Astle was adjudged the man of the match.
Sri Lanka had won the tournament that year defeating favourites Australia in the final by seven wickets. Both England and New Zealand were knocked out of the tournament by the Lankans and Australians, respectively, in the quarter-finals.
