New Zealand defeated Canada by 97 runs in their Group A match at the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai. New Zealand are now at the top of the table with eight points in five games.
Canada invited New Zealand to bat first after winning the toss. Martin Guptill (17) and Brendon McCullum added 53 runs for the first wicket before Guptill was caught behind off the bowling of Harvir Baidwan. McCullum then raised 96 runs for the second wicket with Jesse Ryder (38).
Canada never looked like taking things under their control as McCullum went onto register his maiden World Cup century off 107 balls. He hit 101 runs off 109 balls with 12 fours and two sixes. Ross Taylor then repeated his heroics from the previous match with a 44-ball 74 that had five sixes and six fours.
Taylor picked up 28 runs off one Baidwan over, who went for 84 runs in his 9.1 overs. New Zealand also managed to loot 31 runs off the last over bowled by Rizwan Cheema. Cheema gave away 64 runs in his 4.5 overs as Kane Williamson (34) and Scott Styris (35) and James Franklin (31 runs from eight balls) cut loose in the slog overs.
Chasing 359 runs to win, Canada lost Ruvindu Gunasekara (2) and Zubin Surkari (1) early on. Hiral Patel scored a brisk 35-ball 31 runs and added 46 runs for the third wicket with skipper Ashish Bagai. Bagai then added 125 runs for the fourth wicket with Jimmy Hansra.
Bagai scored 84 runs from 87 balls, his highest World Cup score and hit 10 fours in all. Hansra, on the other hand, remained unbeaten on 70 runs that came from 105 balls with four fours and a six. John Davison (15) had another poor outing but managed to score his best score for this World Cup.
The only consolation for Canada would be that they managed to record their highest World Cup score of 261/9 in their allotted 50 overs. Brendon McCullum was declared the man of the match for his century.