[WATCH] Jonny Bairstow Punishes Matt Henry To Set World Cup On Fire

Jonny Bairstow was in full flow in his 33-run knock (AP Photo)

The highly-anticipated ODI World Cup finally got underway at the grand Narendra Modi Stadium between England and New Zealand on October 5. The New Zealand skipper won the toss and asked England to bat first. Jonny Bairstow and Dawid Malan were given the opportunity to open the innings for England and get the defending champions off to a rollicking start.

Bairstow was effortless in the way he went about constructing his innings during the opening phase of the first innings. During the 6th over of the first innings, Bairstow had made up his mind to go after Matt Henry. He played some delightful shots during that over to bring the crowd on their feet.

After soaking up three dots balls that over, Bairstow demonstrated his aggressive intent as he nailed the fourth deliver over the top of the mid-off fielder for a four. Although he did not get that out of the middle of his bat, the ball was struck firmly enough and it still raced away to the boundary for a four.

His response in the following delivery was even better. In the very next ball, Bairstow played a well-controlled drive past backward point and his timing was so spot on that Boult at deep third man couldn’t get around in time to intercept the ball. Bairstow’s two consecutive boundaries in that over prompted New Zealand to make some hasty fielding changes.

Watch the video here:

Bairstow’s stay at the crease finally came to a close as he was dismissed on 33 (35) by Santner during the 13th over. The 34-year-old attempted to go over the top but eventually holed out to Mitchell at long-off. At the time of writing, England’s present score stood at 128-4 after 24 overs.

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