The first match of the World Cup is over, and surprisingly it was a one-sided game. England had a shaky start when they lost Bairstow in the second ball of the match. But they came back hard on South Africa.
The match was dominated by one man, with both bat and ball, Ben Stokes. He also took 2 catches. Stokes was later declared man of the match. So let’s look at the numbers.
This is the 5th time England played the opening of a World Cup at home and they won all. Three times they won by batting first (1975, 1983, 2019) and two times batting second (1979, 1999).
Jonny Bairstow is the first opener to be out for a golden duck in the opening innings of a World Cup tournament.
He’s the first England opener to get a golden duck in any World Cup when England batted first. This is also the first time Bairstow was dismissed by a leg spinner.
South Africa opened their bowling with leg spinner Imran Tahir. Never before in World Cup history, a leg spinner bowled the first over of the tournament.
Tahir took 2 wickets in his quota of 10 overs. He is now a joint second leading wicket-taker (31) along with Shaun Pollock for South Africa in World Cup. Alland Donald (38) is at the top of the list.
Eoin Morgan reached the milestone of 7,000 runs in ODI. He scored 744 runs for Ireland and remaining for England.
Four batsmen from England scored a half-century in this match. This is the first time 4 English batsmen scored a 50 in the same match of a World Cup.
England scored 311 in 50 overs, this is the 5th consecutive time they have crossed the mark of 300 in ODI. They are just one score behind Australia’s record.
Most consecutive 300-totals in ODIs – 6 Australia (2007), 5 Sri Lanka (2006), 5 India (2017), * England (2019)
Ben Stokes became only the second player in World Cup history to score more than 80 runs, take 2 wickets and 2 catches. Aravinda de Silva achieved this unique record in World Cup Final, 1996.
