'To win was important for us': Curran

Piet Rinke collects his Man-of-the-Match award from Clive Lloyd © ICC

Kevin Curran was delighted with Zimbabwe's performance as they thrashed Canada by 143 runs in the opening match of the Tri-Nation ODI series in Trinidad.

"It was obviously important for us to win this game," said Curran, Zimbabwe's coach. "Having come from the West Indies tour where we were the underdogs, today we went in as a Test nation against an Associate Member.

"We batted well until the last 12 overs where I thought we should have added another 30 or 40 runs. Yes, 220 was a winning score but if we had a perfect batting display we should have made 250." Curran singled out Man-of-the-Match Piet Rinke for praise, saying he "played very well after a poor tour following good outings in the warm-up matches and the home series against Kenya before that.

"We were outstanding in fielding and it was due reward for all the hard work we have put into it that the first two wickets fell to run-outs. Tawanda Mupariwa and Blessing Mahwire bowled a good length and stuck to their plan. In fact, everyone pretty much stuck to the game plan. Today we got it together in all three departments and played very well."

But Curran was not impressed with the Queen's Park Oval pitch, which he said was not suitable for a one-day international. "It's got too much turn and if you get good spinners it could be tricky. On Saturday we will play on the same wicket, and if we face Canada again they have a couple of reasonable left-arm spinners."