For once, the Black Caps have been cricket’s bad guys, and denied Canada any chance of a famous victory at the Twenty20 World Cup, to book New Zealand’s place in the Super Eight stage.
While New Zealand claimed victory by eight wickets at Chennai’s MA Chidambaram Stadium, Canada won the hearts through teenage opener Yuvraj Samra, who hammered 110 in just 65 balls.
Set 174 runs for victory, the Black Caps got the job done with 29 balls to spare. On a pitch perfect for batting on, it might be generous to suggest Canada had a chance of victory, but did have Kiwi hearts beating faster when New Zealand were reduced to 30-2 early.
However, an unbroken partnership of 146 runs between Rachin Ravindra (59 not out off 39 balls) and Glenn Phillips (76 not out off 36) meant the Black Caps enter the next stage of the tournament with some confidence restored, after Sunday’s demoralising loss to South Africa.
As was the case in the win over Afghanistan, Phillips’ aggression was key in making sure the Black Caps never lost momentum. The 29-year-old recorded the fastest half-century of the tournament to date, and needed just 22 balls to raise his bat, and finished with four fours and six sixes.
Meanwhile, Ravindra added a much-needed half-century of his own, after struggling to trouble the scorers so far in the tournament, with just 13 runs in his first three innings.
The Black Caps’ win came without captain Mitchell Santner, absent with illness, as Daryl Mitchell took the leadership reins. New Zealand were also without their leading wicket-taker, Lockie Ferguson, who has returned home for the birth of his first child.
With the Super Eight groups decided pre-tournament by ICC seedings, the Black Caps will travel to Sri Lanka, where they’ll face their hosts, as well as England, and likely Pakistan in the next stage.
While the Black Caps’ attack were expected to run through Canada’s batting order, Samra’s ton put paid to those ideas, hitting 11 fours and six sixes in his knock.
However, while wickets were hard to come by, the Black Caps kept Canada’s run rate in check, as 50-0 after six overs became 75-0 at halfway.
Samra remedied that, and raised the century stand with captain Dilpreet Bajwa (36) in the 13th over with two sixes and a boundary off Cole McConchie, before being given a life on 90 when a swipe to long-off was palmed over the boundary by Matt Henry.
And with a bottom edge past the wicketkeeper in the 17th over, Samra became the youngest batter in the history of men’s T20 World Cups to reach triple figures, with his first century in professional cricket, after taking just 22 balls to move from 50 to 100.
On 103, Samra was given another life – this time by Neesham – who palmed another ball over the long-on boundary for four. But having blazed the highest score of the tournament, so far, Samra fell in the final over, when he hit Jacob Duffy (1-25) to Phillips at long leg, with 110 of Canada’s 173-4.
Set the same total that saw a 10-wicket win over the UAE last week, Canada ensured there wouldn’t be a repeat result for the Black Caps, as both openers went inside the power play.
But Ravindra and Phillips calmed any nerves to reach the end of the first six overs without further loss, before counter-attacking once the fielding restrictions ended.
A straight six from Ravindra raised the pair’s fifty stand in only 27 deliveries, before Phillips put the hammer down against Canada’s spinners, with both Ansh Patel and Shivam Sharma turning the ball into his hitting arc.
A slog-swept six off Sharma saw Phillips raise New Zealand’s 100 in the 10th over, as the equation for victory at the halfway stage was just 68 needed from the last 60 balls.
As Phillips raised his 50 with another six over midwicket, that target dropped to less than a run-a-ball, before a Ravindra pull raised the century stand in 53 deliveries.
With the pair waltzing to the target, Phillips brutally switch-hit Saad Bin Zafar (1-29) for his sixth six, before Ravindra’s third took him to 50, off just 35 balls, as the win was completed in the 16th over.
The Black Caps will now wait on the results of the final matches in Group A, to learn if they’ll face Pakistan, USA or Netherlands in the Super Eights.
Canada 173-4 (Samra 110; Duffy 1-25)
New Zealand 176-2 (Phillips 76 not out, Ravindra 59 not out; Zafar 1-29)
New Zealand win by eight wickets
Alex Powell is a sports journalist for the NZ Herald. He has been a sports journalist since 2016.