Captain Jos Buttler said England was "completely outplayed" by New Zealand in their 9-wicket loss to open their World Cup campaign.

The Three Lions appeared to be in total and utter disarray on Thursday, October 6, as the New Zealand cricket team chased down a target of 283 with as many as 82 balls left in their innings. The English team got off to a good start when Sam Curran took the wicket of Will Young. However, from that point on, Devon Conway and Rachin Ravindra put up an undefeated partnership for the second wicket of 273 runs, which ultimately led to the Black Caps crossing the finish line first.

"A disappointing day, very much outplayed by New Zealand and a tough defeat to take. It is one loss, whether we lost by a run or the margin we did today, it's one loss at the start of a long tournament,” Buttler said at the post-match presentation.

"There's a lot of guys in our team, who've played a lot of cricket. We've beaten teams this way before and been on the end of these results before as well. We won't read too much into it, won't get to down on ourselves as much as we wouldn't get too high if we were on the other side."

"I thought we were well below par," he said. "Judging by the way New Zealand batted, they showed that. I thought we were aiming for 330, it felt like it was a really good wicket to bat on and it probably got even better under lights as well. Just with the score we had and the start they got off to, it's tough to build any pressure.

"We lacked being a bit clinical with our execution. Some of the dismissals were the right shots but just not quite executed correctly. We'll keep being positive, we'll keep playing our way. It shows you have to get good scores on the board if you're going to defend them on really good wickets. You can't be too defensive. I think we were just not quite clinical enough with our shot-making and our execution.

"They played some really good cricket shots and got great value for them. I thought the margin for error on that pitch was very small and in that powerplay, someone like Devon Conway - I can't think of any massive shots he played but he scored very quickly, and the same for Rachin Ravindra as well. The two guys played exceptionally well, they put together a fantastic partnerships and we were well beaten today.

"I think conditions changed, the pitch skidded on even better under lights in the second half, that's why we would have bowled first as well. But I still think it was a good wicket, I think we played a long way short of our best with the bat and still made 280. If we were closer to our best, I think we would have got up to a score which we may have defended - but with the conditions or the skill that New Zealand showed, it may still not have been enough."

On Tuesday, October 10, England will face Bangladesh in their next match at the Himachal Pradesh Cricket Association Stadium (HPCA) in Dharamsala.