By Suneer Chowdhary
New Zealand begun quickly, slowed in the middle, assumed full control in the Batting Powerplay before hammering home the advantage and ending on 358 for 6 in their 50 overs. This was after Canada had won the toss and decided to field first on the assumption that the early morning moisture would make it easier for their quicker bowlers.
Published: Mar 13, 2011, 01:33 PM (IST)
Edited: Mar 13, 2011, 01:33 PM (IST)
Brendon McCullum hits his third ODI hundred
By Suneer Chowdhary
Mumbai: Mar 13, 2011
The Stadium may have changed in appearance but there wasn’t much visible when it came to the track at the Wankhede in Mumbai. The same brown-coloured nature remained and but for a weak-looking Canadian bowling, the spinners could have made a dent or two on the opposition.
Instead, New Zealand begun quickly, slowed in the middle, assumed full control in the Batting Powerplay before hammering home the advantage and ending on 358 for 6 in their 50 overs. This was after Canada had won the toss and decided to field first on the assumption that the early morning moisture would make it easier for their quicker bowlers.
Unfortunately, the Canadian speedsters failed to control whatever little swing there was and went for aplenty. Martin Guptill may have been a slow starter but it was Brendon McCullum who took them on after the first half hour of play.
Henry Osinde and Hariwar Baidwan, who had shared six wickets between them in their win against Kenya found the New Zealand batting too hot to handle and conceded far too many hit-me deliveries. Baidwan did send Guptill (17) back earlier than he would have liked, but after the cautious start, McCullum spared none of the bowlers in the first couple of Powerplays. With Jesse Ryder hitting a couple of early boundaries as well, New Zealand were 95 for 1 in their 15 overs.
The run-rate dropped after the 15th over with the relaxing of the fielding restrictions and off the next 15, there were only 56 scored. In the process, Ryder, who had been mostly throttled in those 15 overs was also dismissed for 38 by the part-time spin of John Davison.
The stage was set for another Ross Taylor-special. After regaining his form in the previous Pakistan game, there was hardly any doubt that Taylor had had his confidence back and against the inexperience of Canada he needed no second invites. McCullum, at the other end, brought up his century as well off 107 balls and the Batting Powerplay was immediately called for in the 37th over.
Taylor batted in those five like he had visualised this situation all night. After Rizwan Cheema had conceded seven off the first of those overs, Baidwan went for four sixes and a boundary and 16 and 19 came off the next two overs before the dismissal of Taylor. By that, he had done his job with 44-ball 70 and though he would have loved another century, he died by the same sword that he had lived by.
The five had gone for 74 runs for the loss of two wickets.
Kane Williamson and Scott Styris joined in the party towards the end of the innings. After seeing off the first couple of overs after the Batting Powerplay, Styris scored 35 off only 20 while Williamson made 34. James Franklin, who came in at the fall of Styris’ wicket provided a fitting end to the innings with 31 off the last over of the innings that propelled the side to the humongous score.
The heroes from the last game for Canada, Osinde and Baidwan went for 136 from their 16 overs, though the latter did pick up three wickets. 122 had been scored off the last ten overs of the innings.
Brief Scores: New Zealand 358 for 6 in 50 overs (Brendon McMillan 101, Ross Taylor 78, Jesse Ryder 38, Scott Styris 35, Kane Williamson 34*; Harvir Baidwan 3 for 82, Balaji Rao 2 for 62, John Davison 1 for 30) vs Canada.
(Suneer is a Mumbai-based cricket writer and can be contacted at suneerchowdhary@gmail.com and Tweets here @suneerchowdhary)
Pictures © Getty Images
