Ahmedabad: ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup 2023 opened at Narendra Modi Stadium Thursday October 05, 2023 here in Ahmedabad with England taking on New Zealand to defend the title.
What bemused the cricket lovers is the empty stand that greeted the players when they took on the ground for the 2023 Cricket World Cup Opening match.
The Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad, Gujarat - the largest cricket stadium in the world and the second biggest in all sports, has a capacity of 132,000 spectators.
India has a huge population of Cricket fans. Despite this the stadium was full only to about 25% of its actual capacity with more than 100,000 seats remaining vacant and the response on the ground was subdued.
The muted response to the ICC Cricket world Cup 2023 opening match has sparked a debate with many cricket lovers criticising the organisers for selecting Narendra Modi Stadium as the venue.
“First game of the World Cup and no one there to watch. This is why Mumbai’s Wankhede Stadium should be hosting more non-India matches. Mumbai, Chennai, Delhi, Bangalore etc love Cricket, not just Indian Cricket”, Mumbai Weather wrote on social media site X. “We all know why Ahmedabad getting so many matches”, it added.
“First game of the World Cup and no one there to watch. This is why Mumbai’s Wankhede Stadium should be hosting more non-India matches. Mumbai, Chennai, Delhi, Bangalore etc love Cricket, not just Indian Cricket”, Mumbai Weather wrote on social media site X.
“We all know why Ahmedabad getting so many matches”, it added.
Former Indian Cricket Virendra Sehwag commenting on empty chairs asked the organisers to distribute free tickets to students for matches which do not feature the Indian team.
“…. for the games not featuring Bharat, there should be free tickets for school and college children. With the fading interest in 50 over game, it will definitely help that youngsters get to experience a World Cup game and players get to play in fron of a full stadium (sic)”, he wrote on social media platform X, originally launched as Twitter.
Chasing a target of 283 runs, New Zealand defeated defending champion England reaching the target in just 36 overs.
Earlier, New Zealand skipper Tom Latham won the toss and decided to field first with Jonny Bairstow and Dawid Milan opening the innings for England.
Jonny Bairstow started the innings on an explosive note, smashing a massive six in the first over. But, soon New Zealand bowlers bounced back as Matt Henry dismissed Dawid Malan on 14 runs.
Jonny Bairstow, who scored 33 runs, was next to go home leaving England struggling at 64/2 in 13th over.
Joe Root and Jos Buttler then built the England innings with the former hitting a beautiful half century while the later missing it by 07 runs.
New Zealand batsmen however were all guns and defeated the World Champion by 9 wickets. The stars in New Zealand innings were opener Devon Conway (152 runs not out) and Rachin Ravindra (123 not out).
The two took New Zealand to victory after Will Young was out in the second over without scoring.
The next match to be played on Friday October 06, 2023 will be between Pakistan and Netherlands at Rajiv Gandhi International Cricket Stadium in Hyderabad. The match will start at 02:00 PM.
England: 282 Runs 9 Wickets 50 Overs (Joe Root 77 runs, Jos Buttler 43 runs; Matt Henry 3/48, Glenn Philips 2/17, Mitchell Santner 2/37)
New Zealand: 283 Runs in 1 Wicket 36.2 overs (Devon Conway 152, Rachin Ravindra 123; Sam Curran 1/47)
Man of the Match: Rachin Ravindra for superb all-round performance and scording fastest World Cup ODI Century for his team (123 runs in 96 balls, hitting 3 sixes and 11 fours, and also taking 1 Wicket)
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