Kiwis, Aussies reach World Cup quarter-finals
Tuesday, 15 March 2011
NEW DELHI, Mar 14, (AFP): Defending champions Australia and New Zealand eased into the World Cup quarter-finals Sunday as Kenya and Canada toiled manfully, but fruitlessly, in defeat.
Australia extended their unbeaten World Cup record to 33 matches with a 60-run run win over Kenya in Bangalore while the Black Caps pulled off a 97-run victory over the Canadians in Mumbai.
The trans-Tasman neighbours joined Sri Lanka in qualifying from Group A with Pakistan poised to complete the four qualifiers from the pool with victory over Zimbabwe on Monday.
Michael Clarke hit 93, the returning Michael Hussey made 54 while opener Brad Haddin contributed 65 as Australia racked up 324 for 6.
In reply, Kenya, who have lost all five matches, finished on 264-6 with Collins Obuya making an unbeaten 98 and Tanmay Mishra, with 72, making sure Ricky Ponting's side endured a frustrating day in the field.
"Bit of rust on the team today, even with the batting," said Australia skipper Ricky Ponting, whose team had not had a full match run-out for over two weeks after last weekend's clash with Sri Lanka was rained off.
"We've done plenty of training. We needed to be out there today to blow some cobwebs off and we've done that," he added, praising Kenya for battling hard.
In-form Ross Taylor (74) and big-hitting opener Brendon McCullum (101) helped New Zealand to victory over Canada.
New Zealand scored a mammoth 358 for 6 at the Wankhede stadium, the venue for the April 2 final, which proved too much for Canada, who ended on 261 for 9.
Captain Ashish Bagai (84) and Jimmy Hansra (70 not out) came together to put on 125 for the fourth wicket and give the scoreboard a look of respectability.
"Our game-plan is to try and keep wickets in hand. Our strength is our lower-order batting and the power that we have," said Taylor, who was standing in as skipper for the injured Daniel Vettori.
India are still on course to make the last eight but their three-wicket defeat to South Africa on Saturday sparked accusations from captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni that some players were showboating.
"In the batting powerplay, it's important that you don't play for the crowd, but for your country," said Dhoni.
India lost four wickets, including those of Sachin Tendulkar (111) and Gautam Gambhir (69) for 30 runs during the batting powerplay, which eventually restricted their total to 296.
Their last nine wickets went for just 29 runs.