Defending champions England begin their ICC Cricket World Cup defence with a match against last edition's finalists New Zealand today at the Narendra Modi Stadium, the world's largest cricket stadium, in Ahmedabad.

The following is a statbox on England-New Zealand encounters.

*It's all even in ODIs between England and New Zealand as the two sides have 44 wins each in 95 meetings. While four matches have produced no results, three contests ended in a tie, including the 2019 World Cup final which England won on the basis of boundary count.

*The two sides are tied five-all in World Cup meetings.

*England have dominated proceedings in their last five encounters against New Zealand. Three results have gone their way, while New Zealand clinched one. The other was a tie in the 2019 World Cup final.

*Former New Zealand batter Ross Taylor has accumulated the most number of runs, 1424, in England-New Zealand contests. Among active players, Kane Williamson and Joe Root sit third and fourth with 983 and 971 runs, respectively.

*While New Zealand's Martin Guptill's unbeaten 189 stands as the highest score in England-New Zealand contests, Jonny Bairstow's 106 in the 2019 World Cup against the Blackcaps is the highest individual score amongst the two sides in World Cups.