Canada v New Zealand at Benoni, 3 Mar 2003 CricInfo Live Report

Canada v New Zealand at Benoni, 3 Mar 2003
Lynn McConnell

Pre-game: Toss,
Canada innings: Toss, 25 overs, 50 overs,
New Zealand, Pool B innings: End of game,

STYRIS AND HARRIS GUIDE NEW ZEALAND HOME
New Zealand beat Canada by five wickets, got their net run rate up to 0.99 but had some madcap, helter-skelter moments before getting home in the 23rd over.

There was some outstanding hitting against a hapless Canadian attack, but there were also some moments of despair as they reached their goal of scoring 197.

They now have to await the outcome of the Sri Lanka-South Africa match also being played today.

Craig McMillan continued in his opening role for New Zealand and was given free rein to play his shots. He celebrated with four off the first ball of the innings, clipped high over the slips to the boundary.

The third ball was cut over point to the boundary and then off the fifth, McMillan gave himself room outside leg and slapped the ball through the covers for four more. A single off the last ball saw 13 off the opening over.

Canada opened with off-spinner John Davison and McMillan took a single from the first ball. Captain Stephen Fleming clipped a shorter, faster ball for four wide of slips before taking a single off the third.

There was hesitation over the single, and that was reflected off the next ball when McMillan hit to mid-wicket just inside the circle, He set off for a run, and Fleming responded. When Fleming was halfway down the wicket, McMillan turned back and Fleming was left stranded, well short of his ground when the score was 19.

Nathan Astle came in and off the first ball he faced, a juicy half-volley on leg stump, he pulled it to backward square leg for four. Off the fourth ball of Ashish Patel's second over Astle was dropped at mid-off by Barry Seebaran.

Canada needn't have worried. In Davison's second over, Astle swept a ball for four after fetching it from outside off but then he attempted to go down the wicket to attack Davison, missed the ball and was well stumped by Ashish Bagai for 11 off eight balls.

Chris Cairns came in and took a single from the first ball he faced, then off the next ball, McMillan attempted to swing the ball away only to have it fly high for Bagai to get his gloves underneath it and hold the catch with McMillan out for 14 off 13 balls. New Zealand were dicing with death at 32 for three in only the fourth over.

Andre Adams joined Cairns and with Patel slipping into wide problems, and some well-hit balls causing ground fielding fumbles by the Canadians, the pair prospered and Adams also took six off the last ball of the over to wide long on.

While they played out Davison's third over for only one run, the arrival of Austin Codrington offered some scoring relief. A well-drilled single by Cairns, allowed Adams to hit another six from the first ball he faced in the over. That also brought up the 50 off 39 balls.

But Adams wasn't finished. Four were hit to mid-wicket off a full toss, to fine leg via a French cut with the fine leg fieldsman up in the circle and the next ball went over slips. With a wide thrown into the mix, 20 runs came from the over.

Another 13 came from Codrington's second over, and he was replaced by spin bowler Barry Seebaran having conceded 33 from his two overs. A powerful straight drive from Cairns was hit for four and then a slight miscue by Cairns still eluded the diving Davison on the mid-wicket boundary and dropped over the rope for six runs.

Davison bowled another tight over, but off the last ball Cairns played a fine cover drive for a boundary.

Seebaran had his second ball hit for six by Adams, but the bowler had his reward when Adams tried to go over the off side but was caught at cover point having scored his 36 off 20 balls. New Zealand 97 for four wickets.

The 100 came up off 67 balls, the first 50 having taken 39 balls and the second 28.

Scott Styris got into boundary scoring mode with a well-timed shot over wide mid on but Cairns, who had been judging his strokeplay so carefully turned a ball from Davison straight to mid-wicket to Ishwar Maraj who took the catch. Cairns' 31 was scored off 28 balls and New Zealand were 114 for five wickets.

Chris Harris flowed into his innings much quicker than usual with a cut wide of slip from Davison which went for four, followed up by an elegant cover drive. When he scored his 12th run he became the fourth New Zealander to score 4000 One-Day International runs, after Nathan Astle (5438), Stephen Fleming (5278) and Martin Crowe (4704).

Styris and Harris reduced the risk factor in their batting and worked the ball around and when Davison finished his 10 overs he had three for 61.

The pair brought up their half-century off 44 balls and Styris celebrated by hitting a huge six onto the pavilion roof at long on. The end then came quickly as Styris hit two fours and a six before taking the single that saw New Zealand to a five-wicket win.

His half-century, off 37 balls was the fourth of his ODI career and he finished on 54 not out while Harris had 38 not out off 29 balls.

CANADA TAKE ADVANTAGE OF POOR KIWI FINISHING
New Zealand will have the calculators out, without knowing what their ultimate requirement is to lift their run rate, when they go out to try and score 197 as quickly as possible at Benoni today.

The South Africa-Sri Lanka match, a day-night fixture today, will determine the final run rates so the incentive for New Zealand has to be to try and get the maxium return from its batting effort.

One thing is certain in this uncertain situation, New Zealand made their task a lot harder by taking so long to knock over the Canadian tail At 129 for six wickets, it should have been mopped up quickly, but another 67 runs were scored before they were dismissed for 196 off the last ball of the 47th over.

Once John Davison was out after another block-busting innings of 75 off 62 balls, the nature of the Canadian innings changed.

Captain Stephen Fleming smelt blood and brought back Shane Bond but two fortunate boundaries for Nicholas de Groot negated the effect of tightening the noose.

Chris Harris, in his 222nd One-Day International, bowled superbly to tie up the Canadian middle-order, and it was only when an attempted run out saw a ricochet go for four overthrows that the resulting five, saw his bowling figures doubled to 10 off five overs.

And while Davison remained his solitary wicket for a cost of 19 runs from his seven overs, the return of Jacob Oram resulted in De Groot's dismissal, trapped leg before wicket for 17 and then six runs later he bowled Ashish Bagai for one with a fuller-length ball to leave Canada 129 for six wickets.

Abdul Samad came in and hit out in positive fashion with some fine strokes, but Fleming called back Bond and in his ninth over he trapped Samad leg before wicket for 12 and the 23-run stand for the seventh wicket was broken.

Off the first ball of his last over, Bond produced an absolutely stunning ball to Joseph Harris, who had scored 26, that rose toward his face and as he attempted to get his bat and head out of harm's way, the ball clipped his glove on the bat handle and wicket-keeper Brendon McCullum leapt high to pull in a lovely catch as Canada were 153 for eight wickets.

Bond finished his 10 overs in the 39th over and three wickets for 29 runs.

Oram ran into cramping problems in his eighth over and bowled four wides. And while Austin Codrington hit out at the start of his next over, Oram had the final say when a fuller ball took the inside edge and hit the stumps as Canada were 173 for nine wickets.

However, the New Zealand bowling at the end was ineffectual and the bowlers, Oram and Adams, resorted to a method of short-pitched bowling which did little for the overall cause.

Scott Styris replaced Oram, whose 10 overs had ended in some physical pain from the cramping and some mental pain from the final haul of four wickets for 52 runs, but with seven wides. That contributed to an excessive extras total of 14, including 12 wides and a no ball.

Styris conceded 12 runs from three fours before he put an end to the New Zealand agony by bowling Ashish Patel for 25.

DAVISON HITS OUT AGAIN AGAINST NEW ZEALAND
No thunderstorms were forecast for Benoni today but New Zealand in their vital World Cup match against Canada ran slap bang into a hurricane called John Davison.

The man who took the fastest World Cup century from the West Indian attack little over a week ago, gave the New Zealanders a taste of medicine from the same bottle. But New Zealand breathed a sigh of relief when their World Cup and One-Day International veteran Chris Harris did the trick by firstly strangling Davison's opportunities and then enticing him to hit out, with fatal consequences to be dismissed for 75 off 62 balls when caught at long on by Chris Cairns. That left Canada 98 for four wickets.

By the halfway stage of the innings, Canada were 112 for four wickets with Nicholas de Groot on 11 and Joseph Harris on four.

While he was at the wicket, Davison ensured there was never a dull moment.

Relative newcomers to international cricket, Andre Adams and Jacob Oram, were well and truly put to the sword. Adams, who opened from the other end to fast bowler Shane Bond gave up four runs from his first over, but two fours and a six to Davison in his second netted 16 runs and from the third another 11 came.

Adams was rested after three overs with 31 runs conceded.

Oram entered the fray and had five off his first over, as well as the wicket of Nicholas Ifill caught behind by wicket-keeper Brendon McCullum.

Reality struck in his second over however, as the mid-wicket area became a no-fly zone for aircraft in the region as the result of some gigantic hitting as Davison plundered three sixes, the last of which flew high out of the ground to take 18 runs from the over.

Davison brought up his half-century off 25 balls, the third fastest in World Cup history, which included three sixes and seven fours.

Canada had been on the receiving end of the two faster half-centuries, the best by Brian Lara off 23 balls, and Wavell Hinds off 24 balls.

As a result, captain Stephen Fleming had Daniel Vettori into the attack to bowl the 12th over.

Even fast bowler Bond had struggled. It took him time to find his length and direction, but finally after 14 balls he got a full length ball through the defences of immobile opener Ishwar Maraj who was out for a duck when trapped leg before wicket.

However, he was a calming influence among the early carnage with his first six over spell resulting in one wicket for 15 runs.

Scott Styris replaced Bond and in his second over, he had Ian Billcliff playing a ball off the back foot towards gully where the waiting hands of Fleming took a catch low to his right. Canada were 80 for three wickets.

Left-arm spinner Daniel Vettori was able to restrain Davison, causing him all manner of trouble in the 16th over before the batsman settled himself down and played out the over comfortably.

When he was joined by Chris Harris, the run rate slowed noticeably and in five overs only four runs were scored. The pressure was brilliantly applied to Davison who was forced to hit out and he paid the price when caught by Chris Cairns for 75 runs off 62 balls.

Canada into the 23rd over were 98 for four wickets.

Bond came back for the 25th over and Nicholas de Groot added to New Zealand's discomfort when taking two boundaries, the second of them edgily from the over.

FLEMING WINS WHAT COULD BE VITAL TOSS
New Zealand captain Stephen Fleming got the first thing right by winning the toss for their final World Cup Pool B match against Canada at Benoni today.

The match is important for New Zealand to win, and win well, if they are to give themselves the best chance of qualifying for the Super Six.

They are locked in a contest with Sri Lanka to achieve the best run rate of the two sides and take the third Super Six spon, should run rate become a factor by South Africa beating Sri Lanka later today.

New Zealand have selected a strong batting side with Nathan Astle back in despite on going problems with a knee for which he will have surgery after the World Cup.

Chris Harris has also been included to bolster the middle-order in the absence through injury of Lou Vincent.

Canada have had a mixed tournament but their undoubted highlight was the victory over Bangladesh, and also the fastest World Cup century scored by John Davison against the West Indies off only 67 deliveries.

The pitch at Benoni has a number of cracks in it which could make life difficult for the early Canadian batsmen. Conditions are fine and warm and expected to remain that way for the game.

Canada: Joseph Harris (captain), Ishwar Maraj, John Davison, Nicholas Ifill, Ian Billcliff, Nicholas de Groot, Ashish Bagai, Abdul Samad, Austin Codrington, Ashish Patel, Barry Seebaran.

New Zealand: Stephen Fleming (captain), Andre Adams, Nathan Astle, Shane Bond, Chris Cairns, Chris Harris, Brendon McCullum, Craig McMillan, Jacob Oram, Scott Styris, Daniel Vettori. (12th man - Daryl Tuffey).

The umpires are: A Jayaprakash (India), B Jerling (South Africa).

NEW ZEALAND WIN THE TOSS AND ASK CANADA TO BAT
New Zealand come to Benoni for their final game in the first round of the tournament knowing that realistically their fate lies in the outcome of the Sri Lanka South Africa clash in Durban.

Canada who have surprised by their showing in the tournament, having beaten Bangladesh and given West Indies a scare will make the most of their last outing in this tournament.

New Zealand however will go all out to up their net run rate with the possibility that four teams will end on 16 points and that net run rate will be crucial factor in qualifying.

Another warm day is expected and a pitch that shows signs of some large cracks could make big totals difficult for the batting team.

New Zealand won the toss and elected to field first in front of of a relatively small crowd.

Canada team: I Maraj, JM Davison, N Ifill, IS Billcliff, NA de Groot, *JV Harris, +A Bagai, AM Samad, A Codrington, A Patel, BB Seebaran.

New Zealand team: *SP Fleming, CD McMillan, NJ Astle, SB Styris, CL Cairns, CZ Harris, +BB McCullum, JDP Oram, DL Vettori, AR Adams, SE Bond.