By RICHARD BOOCK
BENONI - The Black Caps, who had played almost the entire first round of the World Cup with a sudden-death scenario in the background, escaped the executioners' axe yesterday despite a muddling five wicket win over the lightly-regarded Canadians.
As much as New Zealand needed the win, it was
Sri Lanka's rain-affected tie with South Africa that made the big difference to the Group B standings, paving the way for the Lankans, Kenya and New Zealand to qualify for the Super Six, and for the hosts to be eliminated.
In a dramatic follow-up to their last-ball run-out exit in the 1999 tournament, South Africa were on this occasion eliminated by a Duckworth-Lewis calaculated tie after rain intervened after 45 overs in Durban, with Shaun Pollock's side poised at 229 for six, chasing a target of 269.
To add insult to injury, South Africa were also eliminated from the 1992 tournament after a bizarre, Australian-made rain rule left them requiring 13 off one ball.
From New Zealand's point of view, it rated as one of their great escapes following a patchy effort against Canada yesterday.
Needing nothing less than a complete performance to boost their run-rate past that of Sri Lanka, New Zealand proceeded to turn in a wayward effort with the ball before the batsmen strong-armed the side to a win in 23 overs.
Not for the first time in recent weeks, the bowling attack struggled to contain one of the weakest batting line-ups at the World Cup, Canada briefly threatening their highest one-day international total (202), before falling away for 196.
Given New Zealand had possibly harboured desires of bowling them out for under 100, it was another disappointing effort in the field, highlighted by Andre Adams disappearing for more than six an over, and Jacob Oram conceding 52.
Only Shane Bond, Daniel Vettori and Chris Harris managed to live up to their billing as Canada's John Davison led the attack with another sparking innings, this time 75 off 62 balls, including four sixes – one of which sailed out of the park.
In an incident-packed chase, New Zealand caused some palpitations as they slumped to five for 114 in the 14th over, but were led home by an unbroken sixth wicket partnership of 83 between Harris and Scott Styris.
Davison, later named man-of-the-match after opening the bowling with his off-spin, sent back Craig McMillan, Nathan Astle and Chris Cairns in the early stanzas, briefly raising the possibility of another massive upset in Group B.
But the urgency lacking in New Zealand's bowling was clearly evident in the batting, as Cairns, Adams and then Harris and Styris led the innings through a frantic pace; the first 50 arriving in the seventh over, the 100 in the 12th and the 150 in the 19th.
Styris continued to strike the ball cleanly, bringing up his personal 50 off 37 balls and ending unbeaten on 54, including four fours and two towering sixes.
Harris resumed normal service, playing tidily and at times aggressively to ensure New Zealand reached the target at speed, finishing on 38 not out off 29 balls.
For all that, the mere fact that Harris was required to play such an important role with the bat and ball suggested things had not run entirely to plan, and again raised the question of whether the New Zealand attack would have been better off with Daryl Tuffey instead.
As it was, there wasn't nearly enough new-ball support for Bond, who beat the bat regularly while returning figures of three for 29. The New Zealand attack started badly, rallied through the middle of the innings and then went to pieces again in the last ten overs.
The problems couldn't have been more graphically illustrated than when Fleming instructed his pace attack to bowl short to the batsmen at a time when Canada were 183 for eight, with two Ewen Chatfield lookalikes occupying the crease.
Bowling short with a square-set field has never been the easiest way to maintain control over an innings and it seemed nothing much changed yesterday; Canada's tail prolonging New Zealand's agony with a ninth-wicket stand of 23 and a tenth-wicket partnership of 23.
Canada's captain Joe Harris said afterwards that the tournament had been a steep learning curve for his players, but that they would return home with invaluable experience and a keen yearning to return for the next tournament in the West Indies.
"We've had a very interesting tournament," said Harris. "We've created a few records, good ones and bad ones. There was JD's (Davison's) fastest hundred in World Cup history, Ishwar Maraj's slowest 50, our first and only win of the World Cup, and getting bowled out for 36.
"I said from the start that it's very hard for us to come out of our winter, play four practice games and then take on the best in the world, and based on that I think we did all right.
"We'll take back with us the thrill and excitement of the occasion, the desire to aim for the next World Cup and some more thoughts on how to approach the game at this level."
NEW ZEALAND vs CANADA SCOREBOARD
Canada:
I.Maraj lbw b Bond 0
J.Davison c Cairns b Harris 75
N.Ifill c McCullum b Oram 7
I.Billcliff c Fleming b Styris 8
N.De Groot lbw b Oram 17
J.Harris c McCullum b Bond 26
A.Bagai b Oram 1
A.Samad lbw b Bond 12
A.Codrington b Oram 7
A.Patel b Styris 25
B.Seebaran not out 4
Extras (lb-1 w-12 nb-1) 14
Total (all out, 47 overs) 196
Fall of wickets: 1-21 2-43 3-80 4-98 5-123 6-129 7-152 8-153 9-173
Bowling: Bond 10-3-29-3, Adams 6-0-38-0, Oram 10-1-52-4, Vettori 10-0-34-0, Styris 4-0-23-2, Harris 7-1-19-1
New Zealand
C.McMillan c Bagai b Davison 14
S.Fleming run out 5
N.Astle st Bagai b Davison 11
C.Cairns c Maraj b Davison 31
A.Adams c sub b Seebaran 36
S.Styris not out 54
C.Harris not out 38
Extras (lb-3 w-5) 8 Total (for five wickets, 23 overs) 197
Fall of wickets: 1-19 2-31 3-32 4-97 5-114
Did not bat: Brendon McCullum, Jacob Oram, Daniel Vettori, Shane Bond.
Bowling: Patel 3-0-32-0, Davison 10-0-61-3, Codrington 2-0-33-0, Seebaran 7-0-61-1, Ifill 1-0-7-0.
Result: New Zealand won by five wickets
World Cup schedule
Points table
By RICHARD BOOCK
BENONI - The Black Caps, who had played almost the entire first round of the World Cup with a sudden-death scenario in the background, escaped the executioners' axe yesterday despite a muddling five wicket win over the lightly-regarded Canadians.
As much as New Zealand needed the win, it was
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