New Zealand smash 358/6 against Canada

Mumbai: Riding on a century by Brendon McCullum and a breezy 74 off just 44 balls by Ross Taylor, New Zealand amassed a mammoth 358/6 in their allotted 50 overs against Canada in the Group A encounter.

 

McCullum and Martin Guptill chose to get their eye in before they started playing their shots and eventually got their team to a quick start of 53 runs after Canada won the toss and elected to bowl first.

 

Harvir Baidwan got the Canadians the much needed first breakthrough but that didn’t deter McCullum from blazing away to a half century and take full advantage of the first two powerplays.

 

Baidwan got rid of the dangerous Martin Guptill for 17 when he edged one into the gloves of Ashish Bagai.

 

Jesse Ryder (38) gave good company to Brendon McCullum in a second-wicket partnership of 96 runs but was unlucky to hold out against the run of play to give Canada their second wicket.

 

But McCullum continued to press on and brought up his century to put his team on course for a 300-plus score.

 

However, the batting powerplay proved to be fatal for a set McCullum (101) who tried to be innovative in quest of quick runs, which led to his downfall and gave Canada hope of restricting the Kiwis.

 

In-form Ross Taylor didn’t let Brendon McCullum’s wicket affect New Zealand’s chances of a big score as the right-hander took the Canadians to the cleaners in the batting powerplay.

 

The dangerous Kiwi batsman announced his arrival by taking 28 runs off the 39th over, including four sixes and one four.

 

His breezy knock ended at 74, which he got in just 44 balls, but not before giving momentum for the batsmen to come.

 

After that, it was the turn of the lower middle order to drive home the advantage which they did by piling on the runs and eventually ending up with 358 for the loss of six wickets.

 

Earlier, Canadian skipper Ashish Bagai winning the toss and electing to bowl first at a renovated Wankhede Stadium that hosted its first match of the 2011 World Cup.

 

 

Squads:

 

New Zealand: M Guptill, B McCullum (wk), J Ryder, R Taylor (c), K Williamson, S Styris, J Franklin, N McCullum, J Oram, K Mills, T Southee

 

Canada: R Gunasekera, Z Surkari, Ashish Bagai (c/wk), A Hansra, Rizwan Cheema, J Davison, H Patel, H Baidwan, Khurram Chohan, WD Balaji Rao, H Osinde

 

 

(CricketNext)