Pitch and conditions: Cardiff, with its short straight boundaries and deep pockets square of the wicket, offers the usual challenges for bowlers, with back-of-a-length bombs and wide lines for the spinners likely to be the order of the day. The pitch itself is pretty close to the centre of the square and has a bit of live grass on it. The surfaces served up much higher scores in the Blast than in previous years, although those used for the Hundred proved to be fairly turgid. The weather is set to be sweltering.
England vs New Zealand 1st ODI Highlights 2023, Friday 8-9-2023, New Zealand tour of England 2023, Sophia Gardens, Cardiff.
Tom Latham: “looks a decent surface but that’s the way we’re looking to go. No Boult in the NZ XI, Rachin Ravindra plays above Santner.
Jos Buttler confirms he wanted to bat anyway – and news from the England camp, Jason Roy has suffered a back spasm and Harry Brook will open, no Jonny Bairstow either, after he hurt his shoulder in the T20Is, so Dawid Malan also plays! Atkinson’s debut is confirmed, while David Willey and Reece Topley are both included. “These four games are an opportunity to test different combinations, we’ve got a couple of niggles and we don’t want to take risks on people,”
NZ win the toss and bowl.
England team: 1 Dawid Malan, 2 Harry Brook, 3 Joe Root, 4 Ben Stokes, 5 Jos Buttler (capt & wk), 6 Liam Livingstone, 7 Chris Woakes, 8 David Willey, 9 Adil Rashid, 10 Gus Atkinson, 11 Reece Topley.
New Zealand team: 1 Will Young, 2 Devon Conway, 3 Henry Nicholls, 4 Daryl Mitchell, 5 Tom Latham (capt & wk), 6 Glenn Phillips, 7 Rachin Ravindra, 8 Kyle Jamieson, 9 Matt Henry 10 Tim Southee, 11 Lockie Ferguson.
Head to Head In ODI’s: 91
England Won: 42
New Zealand Won: 43
England ODI Rankings: 5th
New Zealand ODI Rankings: 4th
Form guide
(last five completed ODI’s, most recent first)
England LWWWL
New Zealand WLLLL
Match Timings: 11:30 PM GMT | 12:30 PM Local
Umpires – Alex Wharf, Paul Reiffel
TV Umpire – Adrian Holdstock
Match Referee – Chris Broad
Reserve Umpire – Martin Saggers
Match number – ODI no. 4636
Jos Buttler:
“Disappointing. Thought we had a pretty good score at halfway. Most of us were finding it tough to time the ball. Credit to them, it was a fantastic partnership and we couldn’t find a way to break it. We tried most things, for a little period we build pressure and pushed the rate to just under seven, but Daryl Mitchell played some big shots and took it away from us. Brilliant partnership. Thought we got up to a good score, the impetus Liam Livingstone gave us got us to just over par. [Selection] With the schedule, we’ve got to look after a few people. There’ll be opportunities, but we want to play some really good cricket. We’re up against a good team, we’ll look to come back strongly.”
Tom Latham:
“It was outstanding. From the start, we didn’t get the wickets up front but the way we pulled things back, we broke partnerships at crucial times. And then a partnership of 180 between two guys, the way Devon played, the way Daryl played was outstanding, on a wicket that wasn’t the greatest one going around. The way they were able to finish of was very pleasing. Once Rachin [Ravindra] came on we realised the wicket was a bit slower, he bowled outstanding, to get three-for was really important. Thought they were par or just above par, but the partnership… they absorbed pressure and then put their foot down a little bit. Hats off to those two guys. [Rotation?] Don’t want to look too far ahead but making sure the guys are fresh and giving opportunities, so we’ll see what we get when we get down to Southampton.”
Devon Conway is Player of the Match:
“Pretty happy with way things went, nice to spend time in the middle and get the win. We thought it was just about par, we thought 270 was par. The guys bowled well and then the batting group said just to build partnerships and we’ll get over the line. The nice thing about one-day cricket is you have a lot more time than you think. The communication in the partnerships were great. I always enjoy batting with Daryl, we complement each other well. Made my job easy, just getting him on strike. Long may it continue.”
