Mumbai, March 13: New Zealand beat Canada by 97 runs at the revamped Wankhede Stadium which hosted its first ODI in over three years with great aplomb.
Chasing a mountainous score of 359 runs, Canada were put on the back-foot as Kyle Mills picked up two early wickets before limping off the field in the fifth over of the innings. Ashish Bagai (84 runs), coming in to bat with Canada struggling at 4 for two, played a captain’s innings before falling to Nathan McCullum.
After a 46-run stand with Hiral Patel (31 runs), Bagai built a partnership of 125 runs with Jimmy Hansra for the fourth wicket. Soon after the skipper’s departure Hansra, who had ably supported him thus far, retired hurt on 53 runs in the 41st over. He returned to the crease in the 46th over to help Canada bat out their full fifty overs. Canada put up a brave fight to end their quest at 261 runs for the fall of nine wickets with Hansra remaining unbeaten on 70.
Put in to bat first by Canadian skipper Ashish Bagai, the New Zealand batsmen hammered the bowlers to put together 358 runs led by Brendon Mc Cullum who scored a century. Stand-in captain Ross Taylor too joined the party with 74 off just 44 deliveries peppered with six fours and five sixes. The rest of the batting line-up also chipped in with valuable double-digit scores.
The Canadian bowlers could do very little to contain the Kiwi batsmen and by the time they were able to dismiss them, the damage had been done.
The departure of Taylor and the early dismissal of Nathan McCullum brought little respite to Canada as Kane Williamson and Scott Styris continued sending the ball to the boundary.
Harvir Baidwan (3/84), who dismissed Martin Guptill, ended with three wickets including that of Brendon McCullum while Balaji Rao (2/62) picked the wickets of Taylor and Nathan McCullum. John Davison (1/30) was the most economical of the Canadian bowlers but managed just one wicket, that of Jesse Ryder.
New Zealand now lead the Group A table with 8 points out of five games and will take on Sri Lanka on March 18 at the same venue in a day/night game.
Man-of-the-Match: Brendon McCullum for his 101runs off 109 balls with 12 fours and 2 sixes
Brief Score: New Zealand 358/6 in 50 overs (Brendon McCullum 101, Ross Taylor 74) beat Canada 261/9 in 50 overs (Ashish Bagai 84, Jimmy Hansra 70* , K Mills 2/2, Jacob Oram 3/47) by 97 runs.
