Hyderabad: The 23-year-old Rachin Ravindra, is now representing New Zealand in the ongoing ICC Men's Cricket ODI World Cup 2023 which being held in India, watched his team losing the most iconic World Cup final by the rarest margin, on the basis of boundaries, which was played between England and New Zealand at Lord's in London on July 14, 2019.
In the 2019 World Cup final, first time ever in the history of cricket, the result of the match was decided on the basis of boundaries hit by teams after the score was tied in the 100-over match and then in the super-over. New Zealand, who had done nothing wrong in that match lost the grand title because they scored fewer boundaries than England in their allotted quota.
A fairytale start to the World Cup career
The story of Rachin Ravindra is as inspirational as England's title run in World Cup 2019. Four years later, a curly-haired boy was destroying the same England team, representing his national team, in the lung opener of the World Cup 2023 as it was played between the two finalists of the 2019 edition.
England scored 282 runs while batting first and New Zealand lost their opening wicket on a score of 10. England were dominating the proceedings but the young boy came to the rescue of the Blackcaps and stitched a 273-run unbroken stand with Devon Conway. The talented batter was Rachin Ravindra and we will look at the game against England before going through his glorious journey.
Impressive World Cup debut
The New Zealand all-rounder smacked a century on his World Cup debut by playing an unbeaten knock of 123 runs off 96 deliveries laced with five sixes and 11 boundaries. The youngster kicked off his World Cup career in an outstanding manner scoring 523 runs so far in the marquee tournament including three hundred and two fifties. The all-rounder has scored a ton against Pakistan, Australia and England. Also, he played a blistering innings of 75 runs in the game against India.
Derivation of name Rachin
Rachin Ravindra was born on 18 November 1999 in Wellington in Ravi Krishnamurthy's home. Ravi shares a close relationship with Karnataka's capital Bengaluru. As a keen follower of the sport, he used to play club cricket. He was a huge fan of Indian batting greats - Sachin Tendulkar and Rahul Dravid. Thus, Ravi named his son combining the names of both the cricketers - Ra from Rahul and Chin from Sachin. So, the New Zealand all-rounder's name became Rachin.
The 23-year-old kept traveling to Indian shores to play club cricket and also study the nuances of the sport. His father shared a bond of friendship with some Indian pacers and they also encouraged Rachin to take up cricket as a profession.
Drew a Test with solid resilience
Rachin was selected for the Test, ODI, and T20 squads in 2021. He made his name in the international cricket same year when New Zealand were chasing a target of 283 in the fourth innings. New Zealand were nine wickets down on a total of 155 and India were on the verge of scripting a win. However, Rachin stayed firm at the crease with Ajaz Patel for the last wicket partnership helping the Kiwi team ink a draw at Kanpur. The spin all-rounder played an unbeaten knock of 18 runs from 91 balls and played a vital role in helping the team draw the fixture.
Impressing star cricketers
Rachin was sent to bat at number three as Kane Williamson was injured ahead of the opening fixture against England. Williamsons' absence was a big miss for the Kiwis as he is a part of the fab four cricketers in the current era. However, Rachin made sure that the Blackcaps would not miss their star cricketer with a scintillating knock.
Rachin has played three Tests, 20 ODIs, and 18 T20Is so far and many consider him to be one of the elite cricketers in the upcoming years. Legendary Sunil Gavaskar had praised him while commentating and former India pacer Irfan Pathan has also predicted that he will be a world-class all-rounder in the future.
Read more
