MUMBAI: Brendon McCullum’s aggressive hundred and Jesse Ryder’s explosive 74 to help fire the Black Caps to a daunting total of 358 for 6 against Canada in the World Cup Group A match here at the Wankhede Stadium on Sunday.McCullum hits 101, his third One-day International century, from 109 balls with 12 fours and two sixes while Taylor smashed five sixes and six boundaries during his 44-ball innings. In one devastating over Taylor, who smashed 131 in 124 balls against Pakistan, took 28 off Harvir Baidwan, smashing four sixes and a four The stand-in skipper came to the crease in the 30th over with his side on 149 for two after a steady start against winless Canada, and injected urgency into the innings. He was caught by Jimmy Hansra off the bowling of Balaji Rao while McCullum, who put on 53 with opening partner Martin Guptill (17) and 96 with Jesse Ryder (38) for the second wicket, perished in the first over of the batting powerplay, holing out to Ruvindu Gunasekera at extra cover.Kane Williamson (34 not out) and Scott Styris (35) continued the onslaught, as the Canadian bowlers wilted, before a stunning cameo of 31 from James Franklin off just eight balls including three sixes and two fours. The pick of the bowlers for Canada was John Davison, whose 10 overs of spin yielded one for 30 but they were ragged in the field, dropping catches amid the New Zealand onslaught.Baidwan went for a whopping 84 runs in his 9.1 overs and Rizwan Cheema, taken off in the final over after bowling two beamers, was thrashed for 64 off just 4.5 overs.A victory for New Zealand, without injured skipper Daniel Vettori, would make them the second team in the tournament to seal a last-eight berth after Sri Lanka, also in Group A.
