MUMBAI, India - Canada has had trouble with the bat at the Cricket World Cup but it was let down by its bowling Sunday.
After winning the toss, the Canadians put New Zealand into bat. The Kiwis accepted the challenge gladly with Brendon McCullum posting 101 and Ross Taylor bludgeoning 74 from 44 balls en route to a 358-6 total in their 50 overs.
Canada put on its best batting display of the tournament with skipper Ashish Bagai hitting 84 and Jimmy Hansra contributing 70.261-9 but fell short at 261-9 in 50 overs, giving New Zealand a 97-run win and a place in the quarter-finals.
"Definitely a difference in class. We were in the game for 35 overs and all of a sudden it changed the game on us," Bagai said. "It's very hard to get back. Our bowlers weren't good enough under pressure."
Bagai was impressed with the improvement in the batting -- Canada failed to score above 138 in its first three matches -- but conscious that his lineup wasn't more consistently working well in all departments.
"Once you're in this sort of competition, you're going to have to play 100 overs to win a game and we weren't able to."
The Canadians (1-4) next play four-time champion Australia on Wednesday at Bangalore, while New Zealand remains in Mumbai for a meeting with Sri Lanka on Friday which could determine top spot in the group.
Now the New Zealanders lead Group A with eight points and are aiming to finish No. 1 in a pool containing three teams which have won the last five World Cup titles.
Opener McCullum's well-timed century was his first in 22 World Cup matches, while stand-in skipper Taylor clobbered a bowling attack for the second successive match. James Franklin finished unbeaten on 31 from eight balls, joining the onslaught in the last over when the seventh-wicket pair combined for 31 runs against Rizwan Cheema to lift New Zealand reached 358 for six.
Needing to score at seven an over, the Canadians lost their first two wickets for four runs -- Kyle Mills having both Ruvindu Gunasekera (2) and Zubin Surkari (1) caught by Taylor at slip before he left the field with a strained left thigh muscle. He didn't return to the field in was the only concern for the Kiwis on Sunday.
Bagai restored some pride, scoring 84 from 87 balls to help lift his team to 261-9 after sharing partnerships of 46 with No. 3 Hiral Patel (31) and 125 with No. 5 Hansra to take the score to 175-4. Hansra retired with cramp on 53, then returned to finish unbeaten on 70 as Canada posted its highest total of the tournament, surpassing the 199-5 it took to beat Kenya by five wickets.
The 19-year-old Patel swatted a six and hit five boundaries before he was caught behind off Jacob Oram, who returned the best bowling figures for New Zealand at 3-47.
McCullum shared stands of 53 with Martin Guptill (17) and 96 with Jesse Ryder (38) for the first two wickets, stroking 12 boundaries and two sixes in his first World Cup century before he was out trying to lift the run-rate in the 37th over.
He also gloved three catches and ran-out John Davison with a direct hit to help contain the Canadians.
"It was one of those days where you walk off and you know you've done something," McCullum said. "The top order has performed pretty well bar in one game -- today was my opportunity, my turn to stand up and get some runs.
"I'm pleased to make a contribution and pleased to go on and get the points and make sure we qualify for the next stage."
In a stunning onslaught after McCullum's dismissal, Taylor contributed 51 runs to a fourth-wicket partnership that produced 69 runs in 4.1 overs -- including fours sixes and a boundary in one over from Harvir Baidwan that went for 28 runs.
Buoyed by his 131 in the 110-run win over Pakistan last Tuesday and relishing the extra responsibility as captain with Daniel Vettori out with an injured right knee, Taylor was devastating in the batting power play.
He flighted the first two balls of the 39th over the midwicket boundary, faced a dot-ball, then hoisted another six over the square leg fence before his innings very nearly came to an end with another mighty clout -- Cheema caught the ball on the long-on boundary but stepped over the rope in the process, giving Taylor another six.
Just for good measure, Taylor hit the last ball to the boundary to lift New Zealand to 220-3.
He was eventually out mistiming an attempted drive against Bilaji Rao and getting a thick edge to Hansra, who took an excellent catch diving forward from backward point.
Rao then dismissed Nathan McCullum (10) with the first ball of his next over as New Zealand wobbled from 254-3 to 259-5, but Scott Styris (35) and World Cup rookie Kane Williamson (34 not out) put on 59 runs from 35 balls to lift the five-time World Cup semifinalists to 318-6 after 48 overs.
Franklin joined Williamson and took up the charge, blazing an unbeaten 31 from eight balls including two boundaries and three sixes. The last over from Cheema stretched to eight balls, including a no-ball and a wide -- and was the third most costly over in ODI history. Herschelle Gibbs scored six sixes in one over against Netherlands at the last World Cup and Shahid Afridi hit two boundaries and four sixes in a 32-run over against Sri Lanka in 2007.
Baidwan finished as the leading Canadian wicket taker with 3-84 from 9.1 overs, while Balaji Rao returned 2-62.
Bagai said the Canadians had clawed their way back into the game before the late hitting from the more experienced New Zealanders.
"Definitely a difference in class. We were in the game for 35 overs and all of a sudden it changed the game on us," Bagai said. "It's very hard to get back. Our bowlers weren't good enough under pressure."
Bagai was impressed with the improvement in the batting -- Canada failed to score above 138 in its first three matches -- but conscious that his lineup wasn't more consistently working well in all departments.
"Once you're in this sort of competition, you're going to have to play 100 overs to win a game and we weren't able to."
The Canadians next play four-time champion Australia on Wednesday at Bangalore, while New Zealand remains in Mumbai for a meeting with Sri Lanka on Friday which could determine top spot in the group.
