CANADA WORLD CUP BOUND
By Blarnee Stoned
Exclusive to CanadaCricketOnline
DOWNPATRICK, Northern Ireland: Canada nailed down its spot at the 2007 World Cup by rolling over Papua-New Guinea by 160 runs here today while Scotlland demolished defending champions the Netherlands by 98 runs in Belfast.
Put into bat on an easy-paced track and fast outfield, the Canadian top order made hay while the sun occasionally peeped out from behind clouds pregant with rain. Ian Bilcliff (102 not out), John Davison (62), Desmond Chumney (50), Zubin Surkari (45) and Suniil Dhaniram (26) all dined out right royally on the sumptuous fare offered ever so optimistically by the PNG bowlers. Billcliff, in particular, entertained with some rasping coverdrives that pleased both eye and ear and richly deserved the ton that eluded him against Namiibia.
Thus satiated, Umar Bhatti and Davison snapped up three wickets apiece to wrap up a game the result of which was never in doubt. It was also a good day for wicketkeeper Pubudu Dassanayake who had a hand in five dismissals. He held a good catch off Bhatti, executed a quicksilver legside stumping off Davison's offbreak and was razor-sharp in whipping off the bails from accurate returns to the stumps by the fielders.
But the real focus was on the Scotland-Netherlands game on the immaculate ground at the foot of the imposing Parliament building at Stormont. A win by the Dutchmen would have set up a three-way tie in Canada's group with Canada trailing badly on runrate. But tournament favourites Scotland, after a wobbly start, demolished the defending champions by 98 runs to emerge undefeated at the end of the first round.
Scotland used their vaunted pace attack of David Blain and Dougie Brown, who have both played English county cricket, to soften up the Dutch before spinners Ryan Watson and Gregor Maiden snuffed out any remaiining resistance.
So the Canadians are off to Dublin's fair city where (ahem)....Irish eyes are smiling after the local lads finished top of their group undefeated. But Irish hearts won't be happy that they will play Canada in one semi-final without their top batsman Ed Joyce. He is qualified to play for England and has been the first batsman to reach 1,000 runs in county cricket this year but was released by Middlesex just long enough to ensure Ireland qualified for the World Cup.
While the Canadians will be over the moon at qualifying, they will enter the semifinal stage with some wee misgivings. While all the players used have contributed on at least one of the five days Canada will need them all to be at their best on the same day.Thus far only Billcliff (with the bat), Bhatti, Kevin Sandher, Dhaniram and Don Maxwell (with the ball) and clutch performer George Codrington ( bat, ball and in the field ) have not taken days off.
Meanwhile, Canada's neighbours to the south, coached by former West Indies and Canadian player Faoud Bacchus, seem to have taken the whole week off, losing all five games. They will be sucking on bitter lemons tonight while qualifiers Scotland, Canada, Ireland and Bermuda will have richly deserved more than a pint or two of the local brew.
Now, come to think of it....