Canada waste good start to be bowled out for 211

By Suneer Chowdhary

 

Australia were handed an early shock by the Canadians before they came back well to restrict them to 211 in the 50 overs in the Group A clash at the M Chinnasway in Bangalore.

By Suneer Chowdhary

 

Bengaluru: Mar 16, 2011

 

Australia were handed an early shock by the Canadians before they came back well to restrict them to 211 in the 50 overs in the Group A clash at the M Chinnasway in Bangalore.

 

At 150 for two in the 29th over, Canada would have harboured outside hopes of a big score, if not an upset but Shaun Tait and Brett Lee pulled the Canadians back with a combination fine full-length and short-pitch bowling in the middle overs.

 

It was a brave decision to bat first against the Australian pace bowlers but the way Canada batted at the start of the innings seemed to have backed it well. Hiral Patel, who had never scored an ODI half-century opened the innings with John Davison, playing his last game and the pair were off to a sizzling start. 41 came in less than four overs.

 

Patel took Lee for three fours in his very first over before thumping Tait for a six in the next. Davison took the cue and slammed a couple of boundaries before gloving one to the keeper and departing for 14.

 

Hardly changing things, Patel welcomed Mitchell Johnson with a four and six and continued the assault on Lee by hooking him for another six. By the time the first Powerplay had ended, Canada had got to 77 for one, only a few short of the best performance in the tournament in the first ten overs.

 

Shane Watson finally got the better of Patel after he had got to his first ever international half-century. The run-rate was brought down but the partnership between Ashish Bagai and Zubin Surkari looked threatening as they 68 for the third wicket without looking like they would be separated in a hurry.

 

It was in the 29th over that the partnership was finally broken when Bagai chased one from Tait and was caught by the wicket-keeper. Surkari followed soon after, both departing for 30s.

 

The two dismissals brought a flurry of wickets in the process to break the back of the Canadian innings. With not too many batsmen looking to follow up the good work done by the top order, Canada were bowled out well short of getting to a total that could have been competitive.

 

While Lee and Tait did six wickets between them, what would worry the Aussies will be the way in which the inexperienced Canadians took to them in the initial overs. Lee ended with four wickets while Tait had two.

 

Brief scores: Canada 211 all out in 45.4 overs (Hiral Patel 54, Ashish Bagai 39; Brett Lee 4 for 46, Shaun Tait 2 or 34) vs Australia.

 

 

(Suneer is a Mumbai-based cricket writer and can be contacted at suneerchowdhary@gmail.com and Tweets here @suneerchowdhary)

 

Pictures © Getty Images

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