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.
Schoolboy Kumar, 16, became the youngest ever World Cup player, but his only regret was that his father, killed in a 2005 car crash, was not there to see it.
Canada had crawled to 14 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.
While Zimbabwe recorded their first win in this World Cup, Canada seem destined to catch an early flight home after being subjected to a second successive hammering.
Earlier, Tatenda 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.
Zimbabwe looked as if they were going to suffer a bad case of stage-fright despite a nearly empty Vidarbha Cricket Association Stadium as they were reduced to seven for two.
Canada’s Khurram Chohan struck with the first ball of the match when he had Brendan Taylor trapped lbw.
Canadian shouts again echoed around the 40,000-seater arena when Charles Coventry (4) fell LBW to Harvir Baidwan in the fourth over, leaving Zimbabwe facing an uphill task to post a respectable total against a team of part-timers.
However, once Taibu and Ervine came to the crease, they steadied the innings with an 181-run partnership for the third wicket.
Ervine was dismissed when he offered an inside edge to wicketkeeper Bagai while Taibu fell attempting a slog-sweep to bring up his century. His mis-timed effort, also off Balaji Rao, went straight to John Davison at deep midwicket.
Rao finished with four for 57.
Kumar’s father Vikal was killed in a car accident in England while on a cricket tour in 2005 with Nitish, 11 at the time, in the back seat.
He was hospitalized for almost a month and did not learn of his father’s death until returning to Canada.
“It would have been easy for me to pack it in,” Kumar told the Toronto Star newspaper.
“My father wanted me to play at the highest level and where I am now is because of him, my family and my coach. Without them, I’d be lost. There was a time when I would play for myself, but now I play for my father.”
Canada have the oldest and youngest player in the tournament with 40-year-old Davison opening the batting with the youngster.
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