Nagpur, Feb 28: Zimbabwe beat Canada by 175 runs in a one-sided game aided by their spinners at the Vidarbha Cricket Association Stadium here today.
Electing to bat first after winning the toss, Zimbabwe lost their first wicket, that of Brendan Taylor, off the very first ball of the match. Next to go was Charles Coventary leaving Zimbabwe in deep trouble at 2/7 in the fourth over.
The third wicket partnership of 181 runs between Tatenda Taibu, unfortunate to miss his century by two runs, and Craig Ervine (85 runs) helped save the day for Zimbabwe. With useful double-digit contributions from the lower-order, Zimbabwe reached a total 298 runs in their 50 overs.
Chasing 299 to win, Canada were in a similar situation as their opponents at the start of their innings. After the first over maiden by Chris Mpofu they lost opener John Davison to Ray Price in the second over, leaving them at 1/1. This was only the beginning of their downslide. Ray Price struck again in the sixth over to dismiss Nitish Kumar and skipper Ashish Bagai off consecutive deliveries.
Unlike Zimbabwe, Canada could not recover from the early loss of wickets. They could not withstand the spin bowling of Ray Price and Graeme Cremer who bagged three wickets apiece. Prosper Utseya and Greg Lamb weren’t far behind grabbing two wickets each.
Canada have lost both their matches so far while this is Zimbabwe’s first win.
Brief score: Canada 123 all out in 42.1 overs (Ruvindu Gunasekera 24, Ray Price 3/16, Graeme Cremer 3/31) lost to Zimbabwe 298/1 in 50 overs (Tatenda Taibu 98, Craig Ervine 85, Balaji Rao 4/ 57) by 175 runs.
