NAGPUR, India, (Reuters) – An assured 98 from Tatenda Taibu and a devastating opening spell from left-arm spinner Ray Price spurred Zimbabwe to a crushing 175-run victory over Canada in their World Cup Group A match yesterday.
After setting Canada a daunting 299 for victory, Zimbabwe made sure they maintained their perfect record against the North Americans by skittling them for 123.
Price removed John Davison (0), Nitish Kumar (1) and Ashish Bagai (0) to leave the Canadians reeling on seven for three and they never recovered from the setback.
Bagai’s team had crawled to 14 runs after the first 10 overs and facing a required run-rate of 7.12 at that stage, the result was all but a foregone conclusion.
Ruvindu Gunasekera scored a painstakingly slow 24 off 64 balls and when Greg Lamb dislodged his bails with a rather tame delivery, the Zimbabwean was rewarded with a sweaty cheek-to-cheek rub from one of his delighted team mates.
Price finished with 3-16.
Earlier, man-of-the-match Taibu (98 from 99 balls) and Craig Ervine (85 off 81 balls) rescued Zimbabwe from a terrible start to propel the Africans to a total of 298-9.
