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Zimbabwe earn big win over Canada in Tri-Nation Series

Zimbabwe put one foot in the tri-nation final with a massive 143-run rout of Canada in the opening match of the Series at the Queen's Park Oval in Trinidad, today

Kern DeFreitas

Zimbabwe 218/8 (Rinke 72, Taylor 37) beat Canada 75 (Mupariwa 3-30, Mahwire 2-21) Scorecard

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Piet Rinke collects his Man-of-the-Match award from Clive Lloyd © ICC
Zimbabwe put one foot in the tri-nation final with a massive 143-run rout of Canada in the opening match of the Series at the Queen's Park Oval in Trinidad, today.

Three run outs-including the vital wickets of openers Geoffrey Barnett and skipper John Davison- heralded a heavy defeat for the Canadians in the match.

Disaster struck for the Canadians in the fifth ball of their innings as they set off in pursuit of 219 for victory when Barnett set off for a run that was not there. He had reached Davison's end when he realised his skipper had not moved, and was run out by a Chibhabha throw without a run on the board.

His captain followed suit next over, and faced the same outcome with the score on two, this time the throw coming from his Zimbabwean counterpart, Terrence Duffin.

Soon after Desmond Chummney perished for one, driving at one from Tawanda Mupariwa just outside the off-stump and being snapped up by Brendan Taylor behind the stumps. Stewart Heaney joined the list of casualties when he steered a Blessing Mahwire delivery into the arms of Elton Chigumbura, leaving Canada tottering at four for four.
Piet Rinke hits over the top on his way to 72 © ICC
Wicket-keeper Ashish Bagai and Haninder Dhillon took the score to 22, Bagai stroking two fours and a flat six, before Mahwire struck again, inducing a top edge over the 'keeper that was held comfortably by Geoff Strydom.

Dhillon, after three well-time fours, in his 13, was trapped lbw by Mapariwa, and Sunil Dhaniram was another Mapariwa victim, this time caught by Chigumbura at midwicket, Canada 55 for seven.

Sanjay Thuraisingam and Umar Bhatti took Canada to 73, before Bhatti was run out by some fine fielding from Chibhabha when the run had seemed a safe one. One run later, Thuraisingam steered spinner Prosper Utseya to Taylor, and the innings folded on 75 when Strydom at first slip latched onto an attempted Henry Osinde drive of Utseya's spin partner Ryan Higgins.

Earlier in the day Canada had done well to peg back the Zimbabweans to 218 for eight, though they were well on course for a huge total at 149 for three by the end of the 31st over.

Opener Piet Rinke had given the team the impetus early on with an 82-run partnership with Chamu Chibhabha early on, but when he departed on 72, having faced 62 deliveries, the run rate began to slow.

Chibhabha (37) and Taylor (37) both had handy scores, although Vusi Sibanda and skipper Terrence Duffin (3) failed to make any impact with the bat. Chigumbura also played a steady hand of 22. Cruising at one point, Zimbabwe were reduced from 183 for four to 189 for eight, with Strydom and Higgins both being run out without scoring.

Mahwire (9 not out) and Mupariwa (21 not out) saw Zimbabwe past 200, and then returned to put paid to any fight the Canadians could have mustered.